It’s interesting one of the reviews mentions the $250 mysterious “electric box” fee the OP described. Although with inflation it’s now $2500. Decades of shipping fish I’ve never heard of such a contraption.
Very sorry about such a loss of money. It really sucks. I've never been scammed out of money (yet), but I have had a large amount (to me large amount since I'm a teen lol) of money stolen from me.