It didn’t take long over their Facebook chat for Jerry to select a used motor that was affordable and Rick W Swogger would be able to arrange for it to be shipped from Miami, Florida to Rick in the Northeast. At first Rick said that while he preferred immediate digital payments, such as Zelle or CashApp, he would make an exception for Rick and allow him to pay by credit card. They settled on a price of $6000, which included the cost of shipping the motor to Jerry. This was to be paid starting with a $3000 deposit up front, with the balance to be paid once it was delivered to Jerry. However, there were already several red warning flags Jerry didn’t look for and suggesting that Rick was not a legitimate seller. For example, when we conducted a reverse image search of the engine photos that Jerry sent us from Rick’s FB account, we discovered that they had been taken from a post by a real company called Duck River Marine, back in August, 2021.

Unfortunately, Jerry wasn’t thinking that this could be a fraud and hadn’t even thought to conduct such a reverse image search. Afterall, Rick seemed legitimate, and had nearly 930 followers. Also, Jerry had the protection that comes by using a credit card for a large purchase. But that soon changed! Not long after negotiating that $6000 price, Rick Swogger DM’d Jerry to say that he changed his mind and would not accept a credit card as payment. He said “the reason I don’t accept checks or credit cards is because of the number of fraudulent transactions and chargebacks I’ve dealt with in the past. With checks, there’s always the risk of them being returned after the motor has already been shipped. Credit card payments also allow chargebacks weeks or even months later, even after the buyer has received the engine, which has resulted in losses for many small businesses in this industry. Because of that, I only accept payment methods that provide final settlement before I release an outboard for shipping. It’s simply how I protect my business and keep my prices competitive without having to account for processing fees and fraud-related losses.” Rick then told Jerry that he would accept Zelle or CashApp. Jerry felt pressured to proceed this way because he wanted to make this purchase of a decent used motor engine at a decent price. He chose CashApp to send Rick a 50% deposit of $3000.00 on July 29, as they agreed upon. What seemed a bit odd was that Rick W Swogger asked Jerry to send that payment to his “cashier” via two accounts. The first was called $MrRenegade5L and the second was called LuJessie. Also rather strange, and a serious red flag that something was wrong about this purchase, is that Jerry’s first attempt to pay Rick via CashApp was flagged by a scam alert in the CashApp system. The payment was halted. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a strong enough trigger to warn Jerry that this so-called Boat Service on Facebook was not legitimate.

And then a second serious warning flag was raised the day after Jerry sent his initial deposit of $3000 to Rick. Rick W Swogger contacted Jerry to say that he was recently burned by a customer for more than $27,000 and was no longer willing to ship the motor unless Jerry paid the full price up front. Rick said “I have already completed the registration process for the motor and arranged for it to be shipped. Once everything is finalized, I’ll send you the tracking number so you can verify the shipment and monitor its progress every step of the way. The only thing I need before authorizing the shipping company to proceed with the delivery is the full payment. As soon as the payment is received and confirmed, I’ll immediately give them the go-ahead to dispatch the motor, and you’ll receive the tracking details right away. Thank you for your understanding, and I appreciate your cooperation. I’m giving you 100% reassuring.”  (NOTE: That last sentence was another serious red flag because of the incorrect grammar! “Reassuring” is an adjective, where the noun should have been used.) Rick added “Please remember that I was the one who approved the option of making only a 50% upfront payment as a gesture of trust. However, after giving it more thought, I’ve become hesitant because of my past experiences.”

This trick to get victims of fraud to send partial payments is a major part of a scammer’s playbook. If Jerry had been told, up front, what would be the total for all the payments being asked, he never would have purchased the engine! And this wasn’t the end of Rick’s effort to bleed Jerry with partial payments as you’ll see below! 

Of course, Jerry pushed back at the idea of sending the full $6000 payment up front to Rick for this purchase.

A few days into their direct-messaging text conversation, the scammer as Rick Swogger said “I completely understand where you’re coming from, and I genuinely appreciate you sharing your concerns with me. Given what you’ve been through, I don’t blame you for being cautious. Unfortunately, there are a lot of dishonest people out there, especially in the online marketplace, and they’ve made it difficult for honest sellers and buyers to trust each other. I want you to know that I’m not here to pressure you into making a decision or changing the terms at the last minute. My goal is to make this process as transparent and comfortable as possible for you. I value long-term relationships and referrals much more than making a single sale. That’s why I’ve been patient throughout our conversation and have tried to answer every question you’ve had.“ And later Rick added “From a business standpoint, it simply wouldn’t make sense for me to jeopardize my reputation over $6,000. My business is built on trust, honesty, and satisfied customers. My goal is not just to complete one sale like I told you, but to build long-term relationships. When you receive the motor and see that everything is exactly as promised, I’m confident you’ll be happy with your purchase and comfortable recommending me to friends and others in the boating community. That’s how lasting businesses grow through trust, satisfied customers, and referrals, not by taking advantage of people.“ This is, of course, another ruse that is part of the scammer’s playbook. The often used narrative is to proclaim your own honesty and integrity, while expressing concern that you might be defrauded by others. In other words, make it look like YOU are the good guy, though YOU are the scammer!

Jerry paid the balance of $3000. However, this time he was asked to pay the balance not using any credit cards, or digital money transfer such as Zelle, Cashapp, Paypal or Venmo. He was asked to make this payment using Apple gift cards that he purchased at nearby stores! This is a very serious red flag warning that unequivocally means this is a fraud! Unfortunately, Jerry didn’t see that. After sending the full purchase amount of $6000, Jerry was told that a shipping company called Shipavenue LLC would be shipping his motor. Shipavenue LLC has a website at the domain shipavenuellc.com. This was the next step in this fraud to bleed Jerry of more money. Below is a screenshot from the top part of the “About Us” page at shipavenuellc.com. You can see that it oddly refers to itself as “Alpha Shipper.”

Once again, if Jerry had reviewed the shipavenuellc.com website to see if it seemed legitimate or not, he may have avoided the additional money losses he suffered. When we checked out their website, it took us little effort to spot many very serious red flags that the Shipavenue LLC business is a fraud, such as…

1. Their website uses stock images to represent their testimonials, strongly suggesting these testimonials are fake. For example, the photo of Sara Garcia can be found here on Magnific stock images. Also, the photos and quotes of both Sara Garcia and Ronald Dowson can be found on many other shipping business websites, some of which are also suspicious or fraudulent. (See below.)

2. Their website’s Contact page doesn’t exist and they provide no addresses whatsoever for their supposed 254 “offices in the world.”

    

3. The shipavenuellc.com website shows two phone numbers. The top of their website has 520-999-6339. A Google search for that number brought us to another fraud victim. In November, 2023, a woman posted on the BBB Scamtracker website that she was scammed by a different shipping company as part of her effort to buy a new puppy. That particular scam shipping company used the domain freightexpertiselogistics.com and had the exact same phone number!  This phone number, 520-999-6339, was also found on two more suspicious/fake shipping company websites: 

• Freightavenue LLC, using freightavenuellc.com. This fake shipping company is identical to the shipavenuellc.com website, including the 2 testimonials described above. The domain freightavenuellc.com was registered less than 2 months ago in Lithuania on 7/7/2026.
• Precision Locate LLC, using precisionlocate.com. This shipping company is similar to shipavenuellc.com, and also includes the exact testimonials for Ronald Dowson & Sara Garcia. The domain precisionlocate.com was registered in Lithuania on 7/24/2026, about a month before we discovered it.

NOTE: On all three shipping websites just mentioned there is a link to be able to “Pay Online.” This is very unusual and not common for shipping websites. Also, there is no complete address listed on any of these 3 shipping sites. 

The Footer section of the shipavenluellc.com site shows a different phone number as 719-512-0474. A Google search for 719-512-0474 leads to another victim’s report on the BBB Scamtracker website in February, 2025. In this report is a fake dog-selling website called newdawnstaffordshire.com, and another fake shipping company called Century Shippers, using the domain centuryshipper.com. Neither of these two fake websites are online as of 8/28/2026.

4. The domain shipavenuellc.com was registered in Iceland through Namecheap on 12/1/2025. That is less than nine months ago. In our opinion and experience, Namecheap is one of the most favored Registrars by cybercriminals around the world!

5. Scam-Detector rates shipavenuellc.com as 36.5/100, meaning it is questionable and flagged. (However, as of 8/27/26, neither VirusTotal, nor the Zulu URL Risk Analyzer found any concerns with this shipping site.)

6. We found several grammatical errors and poor English on the Shipavenue LLC website. We prefer not to point out these exact errors because we don’t want to show the scammers how to improve their fraud!

Unfortunately, Jerry’s losses were not over! On July 31 he was informed that his motor shipment was on hold in Miami, Florida. He received the following email from the shipping company Shipavenue LLC…. “Greetings [NAME REDACTED], For your protection and to ensure the shipment is processed securely, a refundable insurance fee of $1,500 is required before the order can be released for delivery. This insurance represents 25% of the value of the outboard motor. The insurance serves as a temporary security deposit to protect both parties throughout the shipping process and helps ensure that the shipment is handled in accordance with the carrier’s policies. Please note that this is not an additional purchase cost. The full $1,500 insurance fee will be refunded to you upon successful delivery of the outboard motor. Your refund will be issued in the form of a cashier’s check made payable in your name, which will be presented at the time of delivery. The total amount due at this stage is $1,500. Once the payment has been received and confirmed, the shipment will move into the final processing stage, and you will be provided with the shipping confirmation.” This unexpected insurance fee is also part of a scammer’s narrative. Notice that they make the promise that this $1,500 fee will be refunded. That is a lie. Jerry paid the fee, again by purchasing Apple gift cards at nearby stores. Shortly afterwards, Jerry was notified that he would have to pay again! This time it was $1,300 in “city fees.” And again he paid using Apple gift cards.

Our readers may think that Jerry was at fault for believing Rick W Swogger and then the people at Shipavenue LLC. We don’t agree. A common strategy of this type of fraud is to get a victim invested into the outcome by making partial payments. In other words, notch up the fraud in increments. After having invested $6000 already, it is extremely unlikely that anyone making such a large purchase would walk away when told that they suddenly had to cover a refundable insurance fee. We’ve seen lots of smart and professional people fall for this type of fraud. Jerry had actually been a Police officer for more than 22 years. He told us that he had spent many of those years as an Detective working on criminal investigations. But he was fully sucked into this fraud, until he wasn’t. By this time in his victimization, the scammer has already stolen a sizable amount of money, $8,800 in total. Their playbook pulls from a never ending list of unexpected costs, most of which are said to be “refundable” and all of which are a lie.

On August 6, Jerry received the following message from Shipavenue LLC: (Notice various capitalization, spelling and other English errors in this message, such as misusing the word “deceleration.”) “Good morning [NAME REDACTED], I guess you are aware That Outboard motors contain residual fuel, oil, and lubricants, which are considered hazardous materials. All oil and fuel must be drained prior to shipping, and a dangerous goods declaration form filled However, your shipment was held for inspection and the officials found out that there were no owner ship documents. So we are also contacting you regarding the complete transfer of ownership documents for your outboard motor. The amount currently requested to complete the ownership transfer is $1,800. And from this fee, $1500 will be refunded back to you. The outboard is currently in transit and is scheduled for delivery today, subject to the carrier’s delivery schedule and confirmation. Thank you for your cooperation. “ This was shortly followed by…. “C I D Pick-up Time: 17:00 pm Unfortunately, After reviewing your shipment once again by the officials, it is clear that your shipment lacks the dangerous goods declaration form stating it has been purged of hazardous liquid. As we all know, outboard motors may fall under dangerous goods rules is because of the flammable fuel, oil, and other hazardous substances they may contain not because the motor itself is inherently dangerous. To this effect, you have to pay another refundable dangerous deceleration fee of $1500. Note that with this fee, $1400 will be refunded back to you. Your total refund now is Total refund $3000 for insurance coverage $1300 for the Clerance fee and City permit $1500 for paper work $1500 for the dangerous/hazardous goods declaration. Total = $7200. This will be refunded to you via a cashiers check at delivery.”

Jerry struggled to find more stores where he could purchase large Apple gift cards and not be turned away by staff. This time he sent $1,500 and an angry message back to Rick W Swogger. He said he felt as though he were being extorted and this was all a fraud! He said that he had completely depleted his cash savings to pay these unexpected fees and this was starting to impact his life. He told Rick “My credit card won’t work anymore and I had to go to three different stores to find the [Apple gift] cards!”  Later on Jerry sent the following message to Rick W Swogger…. “I will give them no more money. I gotta cut my losses right here. If you want to get some skin in this game with YOUR shipping company, then I need you to pay them. I will reimburse you

They extorted me for over 12k. I got no more money. I can’t even mount this fucking thing because I can’t pay the marina. Now I have to get my boat out of there and store it somewhere. This fucking sucks. I got robbed and extorted and I will pay no more money to anyone. I told them I’m not paying anymore and to reach out to you.” About three weeks after first contacting Rick W Swogger via direct messaging on Facebook, Jerry had sent him and Shipavenue LLC a total of $12,300 via various methods and accounts.

It was at this time that Jerry knew this entire transaction was likely a fraud and he expressed his anger directly to Rick W Swogger. The scammer playing this part did exactly what most professional scammers do… DENY, DENY, DENY and DEFLECT, DEFLECT, DEFLECT! He replied with “I understand that you’re extremely frustrated, especially after everything you’ve already put into this situation, and I’m not dismissing how you feel. But I want to make one thing absolutely clear: this was not my idea, and I did not create these charges or ask for them to be imposed on you. I have only been trying to help you work through the situation and communicate with the shipper so the matter can be resolved. I’m not here to take advantage of you or make things more difficult. I understand why you’re upset, but I also ask that you please keep the conversation respectful. You can be angry with the situation without directing disrespectful comments toward me personally. I’m willing to continue communicating with you and do what I reasonably can to help get some clarity from the shipper. But I cannot accept responsibility for charges or decisions that I did not make. I hope we can keep the communication calm and respectful while we try to figure out what can actually be done from here.”

It’s time to turn our attention back to Rick W Swogger and his boat service account on Facebook. We are 100% certain that the person behind this Facebook account is a fraudster. Besides the suspicious payment methods and changed policies that he used to lure and keep Jerry’s money flowing, we have other evidence….

• Rick W Swogger’s Transparency page on Facebook shows that his account was created on 11/9/2025 as a Boat Service in the name of Charles Owen. On June 8 of this year, that account name was changed to Rick W Swogger. This is highly suspicious and often means that a person’s account was taken over by scammers who then misuse it. 
• As of 8/28/2026, Rick’s FB account has 931 Followers, which feels like it brings some credibility to his service. However, only 15 of these 931 Followers are shown publicly. Of these 15, we found more than half (8) are unusual because of their connections to countries and languages in Asia, such as Indonesia, Philippines and Bangladesh. And one of these 8 Followers has been identified as a fraudulent pet selling service. Here are these 8 Facebook Followers…

1. Zainal Abedin Entertainment – The account name is written in the Bangla language which is spoken primarily in Bangladesh & parts of Eastern India.
2. Plang2x – Her phone number begins with +63, the international calling code for the Philippines.
3. Sha Officiall [sic]- This account lists her address in Batang, Central Java, Indonesia.
4. Irtiaz Ratan – This is a musician located in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
5. dr animal bite clinic – This clinic has a phone number that also begins with +63, the international calling code for the Philippines.
6. DJ Montengora – This account owner is a young Black musician who seems to be from some other country, though we could not clearly identify what country.
7. D’ Disciples of Jesus – This account is managed by someone in the Philippines (according to their Transparency page) and has a phone number that also begins with +63, the international calling code for the Philippines.
8. Jessica Petra’s Oriental Shorthair Cattery – This account was started recently, on 6/5/2026, and claims to sell pet cats. However, one of three reviews is from a service that specifically identifies scam pet-selling accounts on Facebook. It is called Pocket Watch Dog. Pocket Watch Dog has called out Jessica Petra’s Oriental Shorthair Cattery as a scammer’s account and that the scammer is located in Cameroon, Africa.

• We have found 5 of 7 Engine photos we investigated that are posted on Rick W Swogger’s account were likely stolen from other legitimate Facebook accounts, such as Duck River Marine.
• Perhaps the most important evidence that Rick W Swogger is a scammer is the fact that his profile photo (posted on June 8, 2026), and at least 7 other photos in his account, that show himself as a middle-aged white man with a beard, mustache and his spouse, were stolen from another Facebook account from a man named Aaron that was created in 2008. Nearly all of the people photos found on Swogger’s Facebook account can be found on Aaron’s account, including the profile photo. Aaron posted it back in July of 2021. (By the way, the photo of a team of fisherman winning an award that Rick Swogger posted on June 10 was not a photo connected to himself or his business. It was stolen from one of many sources such as this post about the winners of the 68th North Carolina Big Rock Blue Marlin Tournament this summer.)

Over the next few days, Rick and Jerry went back and forth through Facebook DM. Jerry was calling the shipping company a fraud with never-ending fees and Rick often started his responses with “I understand what you are saying but…” All the while, Rick kept pushing for Jerry to pay more fees, even offering to pay some of them on behalf of Jerry if Jerry paid a portion. Once again, the scammer’s narrative… Milk the victim for every last drop of money you can get! Eventually, Jerry said “I’m seriously tapped out. If they hit me again, I am unable to pay. Sadly, I have zero documents, and all my money has gone into untraceable accounts. I wiped out the Apple gift cards at local supermarkets and my credit card was blocked. I used my debit card and now that account is empty.“ By now, Jerry knew he had been scammed. He told us that he even gave the last bit of money just to test that this was a fraud. Keep in mind that the entire conversation over a few weeks between Jerry and Rick, or between Jerry and ShipAvenue LLC, was via chat or email. There was never a phone call or video chat! These forms of disinhibited communication fully support scammers and their fraud. (The impact of online disinhibition and fraud is described in this article from ThreatMark.com.) 

I wondered if I could actually reach out to Rick W Swogger, get a phone number and have a voice conversation with him. If so, what kind of accent might I hear? I contacted Rick W Swogger on Aug 27 to ask if he had a 300HP boat motor for sale. Of course he said yes, a couple of hours later. Via DM, he asked me some questions about what I was looking for and I replied that it would be easier to have this conversation on the phone rather than direct messaging. He gave me his phone number as 407-913-8259, which uses a Florida area code and fitting his storyline of being a Florida boat service. When I called, using a made up accent of an old man from New York, we had a very brief conversation which I recorded. It’s important to note that Rick W Swogger presents as a middle aged, caucasian, American man based on his photos. What I heard in his voice was a Black African man. You be the judge….

Remember that Jerry had been a Police Officer for over 22 years. He still had connections to his former colleagues. He told us that he reached out to his contacts to see if his CashApp initial payment could be traced, and possibly even reversed once it was identified as a fraud. Unfortunately, even his friends in the force told him that it wasn’t possible. They urged him to file a legal complaint and then reach out to CashApp, perhaps with a Subpoena. However, he was told that it isn’t likely that he would be able to recover any of that initial payment at this point. We also learned that this wasn’t Jerry’s first time being targeted by fraudsters. He told us that he had almost suffered a serious bank fraud. He was tricked into calling scammers over an issue with his bank account. They were almost able to withdraw $40,000 from his account. But he got suspicious, and called his bank directly. They confirmed he was communicating with scammers and shut down his account immediately to prevent any transfers!

Despite losing more than $12,000 to the scammers behind Rick W Swogger and the fake shipping company at shipavenuellc.com, Jerry told me that he can even laugh about how clever this fraud was and what he learned about it. He wanted his story told, hoping that others might learn from his mistakes and the fact that he missed so many red warning flags that appeared during this three week experience. However, very unexpectedly, Jerry tried one more little trick to get back at Rick W Swogger to expose his fraud. And it worked! On Monday afternoon, two days ago, we gave Jerry something that he could use to track exactly where Rick W Swogger was located. (We prefer not to reveal exactly what this trick is or how it was implemented.) This past Monday, Jerry tricked Rick Swogger, who is supposedly located in Miami Florida, to reveal his true location. With 100% confidence, we determined that this scammer, using the name Rick W Swogger, is located in Douala, Cameroon. This is a coastal city in West Africa, just south of Nigeria. My assessment that Rick had a Black African accent was spot on!

By the way, you might find it interesting to know that that lovely woman’s photo in the above email from “Harry Potter” has been used for years in various dating scams. For example, it can be found here on the Scamdigger.com website.

According to several sources, this voicemail message below was AI-generated, though we can’t be sure. However, we are 100% confident that this is a fraud. A woman’s voice introduces herself as “Susan from National Advisory Center” and asked the recipient to call her at 833-333-7507. Both this phone number and calls from the “National Advisory Center” are listed as scam calls all over the Internet, including BBB Scamtracker, on August 27 and on July 24, as well as 800notes.com!

And again we heard from a reader reporting this scam message from “Sophia at AT&T” calling about a 50% discount. Sophia asks you to call 833-549-6991 to take advantage of this offer. This message is clearly AI-generated and this fraud has been reported many times, such as this woman’s post August 20 on NextDoor.

We want to remind our readers that cybercriminals are still posting lots of things for sale on sites like Facebook Marketplace and NextDoor that are just lures to steal your money. Check out this post on NextDoor a couple weeks ago that asks people to send $1000 to Elizabeth Shockley if they want her to hold that motor bike for pick up. Frankly, we’re Shockley’d that anyone would do that!

Here’s a reminder too that scammers use every possible website to target victims with their fraud. MeetUp is a platform used to find local groups to engage with. Check out the fake job posts that scammers put on a MeetUp group. Of course, this type of post isn’t allowed and was quickly taken down….

We recently read an Opinion piece published in the New York Times that is worth your time. It is about the insanity of surveillance pricing, hidden fees and shifting consumer costs based on data that companies collect about us. This is a perfect example why we feel that a lot of pricing in the consumer market is a form of fraud! Read the NY Times article and draw your own conclusion.

Just last week we received a concerning email from Consumer Reports about a popular children’s food product and unhealthy chemicals. We think it is worth passing this on to our readers and invite you to share this with friends and family. In an email, CR said “Two years ago, Consumer Reports called on Annie’s and its parent company, General Mills, to reduce consumers’ exposure to phthalates in their food after our investigation found high levels of these risky plastic chemicals in one of their products marketed to kids. Now, our latest tests show the company still has work to do. Our new investigation of 21 kids’ snack foods found another product, Annie’s Cheddar Bunnies, once again had the highest levels of phthalates in our tests. That’s especially troubling because Annie’s—with its familiar bunny logo—is a brand popular with parents looking for organic options for their kids. Families shouldn’t have to worry that foods marketed to them and their children could expose them to risky plastic chemicals. Tell General Mills to take action and reduce risky plastic chemicals in their products now.”

Though we have posted this link in a prior newsletter concerning the impact of AI-related fraud on Americans, we think that this Malwarebytes research/article from June is exceptionally important to read. It sums up our concerns that our government is not doing enough to place any safeguards around these very dangerous digital tools! https://www.malwarebytes.com/ai-scams Also, according to an article recently published on Cyberscoop, AI-tools have launched the new arms race of fraud used to attack people around the world! Check out… https://cyberscoop.com/ai-generated-fraud-identity-spoofing-defense-strategy/

Even the FBI gets abused by scammers as they target victims. Check out this post on the FBI website about scammers impersonating them…

https://www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/boston/news/fbi-boston-warns-of-new-agent-impersonation-scam-spoofing-fbis-phone-number-before-urging-victims-to-switch-to-encrypted-application

By the end of 2025, 38 teenagers had died by suicide after being extorted for money by scammers overseas. Most of these scams were perpetrated by Yahoo Boys from Nigeria…

https://nypost.com/2025/12/10/us-news/38-us-teens-died-by-suicide-in-five-years-from-sextortion-scams/