SAN DIEGO -- Mechanic Dennis Valdez is a smart guy. He has to be with today’s sophisticated cars.

He’s also seen and heard all the stories about internet scams. But this one was different.

“It was 43 grand -- $43,000,” said Valdez. “You know you work hard to earn all that stuff and now it's just gone.”

It started when Valdez found his dream boat for sale on usedboats.com.

“And he was going to ship me the boat,” said Valdez of the seller. “And if I didn't like it, I could return it.”

The seller said his name was Steve Stewart and that the boat was parked in Colorado.

“Through the whole thing, I was iffy because I never bought anything like that -- a major purchase -- through the Internet.”

Valdez thought he had done his homework.

“I ran the hull number, the VIN number.”

Valdez did a search on the seller's name, finding a real person named Steve Stewart living in Colorado. The shipping company that the seller wanted to use – Express Auto Transport – was also real. Valdez also contacted the escrow service that the seller suggested, which would hold onto Valdez's money until he got the boat.

“Every doubt I had, seemed like it got reassured.”

Valdez finally wired $43,000 from a credit union in San Diego to a Bank of America branch in Los Angeles, as he was instructed by the escrow company. The money was credited to the receiving account, but then it was quickly withdrawn or transferred.

The boat, however, never arrived.

“And you're waiting for a boat and it doesn't show up,” said Valdez.

So what happened? Dennis Valdez was set up.

The seller -- Steve Stewart of Colorado – exists, but the con man stole and used his name.

The shipping company also exists but there was no powerboat to ship.

The escrow company was again, a stolen name, but this one was a little more complicated.

According to Kathleen Partin, special administrator for escrow law with the California Department of Corporations, there aren’t many legitimate Internet escrow companies.

“There are two licensed in California right now. We have Internet Escrow Inc., which is also known as escrow.com. And we also have Elance Escrow Corporation,” said Partin.

Unfortunately, Valdez didn’t know that. When the seller said he wanted to use an escrow service called eBay Vehicle Purchase Protection Program, Valdez decided to check it out. This is where he made a big mistake.

Valdez used the Web site link provided by the seller for the supposed escrow company. That Web site was a fake. It was created to look like an escrow company called eBay Vehicle Purchase Protection Program.

“It looked exactly like eBay, even had the same kind of address,” said Valdez.

When Valdez clicked on the “contact us” link on the fake Web site, he was duped again. He thought he was independently verifying the company, but he was being fed information from the fraudulent seller.

He mistakenly thought that it was an escrow service owned by eBay. In fact, eBay Vehicle Purchase Protection Program is the name of a real eBay Motors service, but it has nothing to do with escrows.

Valdez filed reports with local police and on the Internet Crime Complaint Center website.

Bank of America told the I-Team that they have given information to the FBI about this case.

On the I-Team blog, we tell you how to verify an escrow company and how to spot a fake website.