Here is the notice from The Pinellas Realtor's Organization. Below that is the explanation of what is going on. I have already had one good friend call me up asking me about these. He has some friends who are involved in this on Commercial real Estate deals. It sounded a little to good to be true.

If a buyer tries to use a "personal promissory note" or "private offset bond" to buy a home, the matter might be an attempt at fraud. According to a notice from the U.S. Treasury's Office of Inspector General, investigators are examining incidences throughout the U.S. where individuals are using fraudulent promissory notes and bonds to try to buy vehicles; and in Arizona and Colorado, where similar fraudulent documents were used to attempt to purchase homes and an office building. Instead of being called U.S. Treasury bonds or promissory notes, the fake documents are referred to as a "personal promissory note" and "private offset bond"; however, they have the name of Henry Paulson, Secretary, U.S. Treasury, on their face. Citizens can only buy one type of hard-copy bond from the U.S. Treasury, though - a savings bond. All other bonds are electronic and the buyer would not receive a hard-copy document. Finally, Paulson's name should not appear on any document listed as a private bond or promissory note, since these items are not backed or guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury. If you have any information regarding this type of fraud, contact the U.S. Department of Treasury, Office of Inspector General (OIG), Office of Investigations Hotline, at (800) 359-3898 or e-mail Hotline@oig.treas.gov.

For more info, go to: http://www.treasurydirect.gov/instit/statreg/fraud/fraud_bogussightdraft.htm

The link just above gets you to this explanation:

Bogus Sight Drafts/Bills of Exchange Drawn on the Treasury

There has been a proliferation of bogus sight drafts and bills of exchange drawn on the U.S. Treasury Department. These documents have appeared in a majority of states and have been used in an attempt to pay for everything from cars to child support. View image of a "Bogus Sight Draft (230K JPG file, uploaded 12/12/2002)."

The Story

A stripped-down version of this scheme is as follows: When the United States went off the gold standard in 1933, the federal government somehow went bankrupt. With the help of the Federal Reserve Bank, the government converted the bodies of its citizens into capital value, supposedly by trading the birth certificates of U.S. citizens on the open market. After following a complicated process of filing UCC documents with either the Secretary of State of the person's residence or another state that will accept the filings, each citizen is entitled to redeem his or her "value" by filling out a sight draft drawn on their (nonexistent) TreasuryDirect account. The scheme asserts that each citizen's Social Security Number is also his or her account number. As a part of the scheme, participants also file false IRS Forms 8300 and Currency Transaction Reports in the name of law enforcement officials and other individuals they seek to harass.

The Reality

Drawing such drafts on the U.S. Treasury is fraudulent and a violation of federal law. The theory behind their use is bogus and incomprehensible. The Justice Department is vigorously prosecuting these crimes. Federal criminal convictions have occurred in several cases. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has tried to alert the banking community to this fraud. See Suspicious Transactions, Fictitious Sight Drafts. (3K txt file, uploaded 5/16/00)

A Note on Bills of Exchange

With early and vigorous prosecution by the Justice Department on bogus Sight Draft cases, we have begun to see Bills of Exchange taking their place. This change occurred on or around January 2001. All these Bills of Exchange drawn on the U.S. Treasury are worthless. All the same issues and background materials applicable to Sight Drafts also apply to Bills of Exchange. This is the same fraud under another name.