A renewal notice you may have received in the mail.

It looks official but this renewal notice is not from the United States Coast Guard National Vessel Documentation Center!!!

Beware of renewal notices you receive in the mail that appear to be from the USCG. They even have a West Virginia return address on the envelope just like the real USCG NVDC. They are timed to arrive just weeks before the official renewal notice that comes from the USCG. The cost to use this renewal service is $75 instead of the normal $26 charged by the USCG.

FBI Alert I-040715b-PSA

Look above. The real USCG NVDC renewal notice comes in the envelope at the top comes mailed from NVDC offices at Falling Waters, WV. The renewal offer from the high priced look alike 3rd party service has a return address from Morgantown, WV although it is postmarked from Santa Ana, CA. The 3rd party look alike office is actually located in Long Beach, CA. The Morgantown, WV return address is just a rental mail forwarding service intended to confuse the boating public. Changing the return address from California to a West Virginia rent a box is one more ploy to trick the boater into thinking this is an official notice. The reference to CFR and USC federal regulations that they claim could result in fines, penalties, imprisonment and vessel forfeiture is further trickery and mostly false information.

The website shown above is from the imposter business, www.uscgdocumentation.us. It has been designed to look like the USCG site. The website address, www.USCGDOCUMENTATION.US, is also chosen to confuse consumers and may appear ahead of the real USCG site on many search engines. Most boater documentation needs can be performed at the real USCG site far easier, with faster results and at a much lower cost to the consumer. For example the CG-1258 form is available from the NVDC, https://www.uscg.mil/nvdc/instr/inst%20exchange.pdf. This form is used to transfer an existing documented vessel to a new owner. It is easy to download the form from the real NVDC site, insert the required fields, print and mail to the USCG NVDC with the $84 fee. If you type the same information into the online look alike website you will need to pay them $475 and it won't get done any faster. Actually it could take them a couple days more to forward your information and $84 of your money to the USCG NVDC. Another indication of the nefarious intent of this look alike 3rd party business is that you will not find a mailing address on their website.

A public service letter is being mailed to documented boat owners.
This notice describes the Long Beach, CA operations intended to look like the USCG NVDC. Any boaters who feel they were deceived by this company are encouraged to contact us here at AuGres Maritime Museum. We will forward this information to legal council and law enforcement with the boater's permission. This initial public service notice will be mailed to recreational boaters whose certificate will expire April 30, 2017. There are over 12,000 such American boaters who we believe have been recently targeted by this Long Beach, CA company in an attempt to sell them a $75 annual renewal that only costs $26. The Long Beach, CA company also tries to sell a 5 year renewal plan for 5 times the price or $375.00.
Dear USCG Documented Boat Owner.docx
Microsoft Word document [36.9 KB]

The cg-1258 is mailed from the USCG NVDC is mailed to owners of documented boats 45 days prior to expiration.
The form comes pre printed with owner name, address, boat name and documentation notice. Just sign include $26 check and mail.
cg1258 uscg documentation form.pdf
Adobe Acrobat document [211.1 KB]