I was looking for a jeep online and i ran across an add for a 1995 Jeep wrangler. This is a scam!!!

I saw an ad for a VW Beetle for around $3800.  I sent an email to test drive the car.  I received a response message from someone who says he is in the military.  This is the message:

Right now I'm located in Naples, Italy. I work in the army and my time is limited.
The reason of selling it, is that the registration of a car with US standards in an European country will cost me up to $5000 on inspections, modifications and paper work.

I am not so familiar with online sales and I decided to use a service from an business-specialized company, eBay Motors Vehicle Purchase Protection (VPP).
The payment will be completed to eBay Motors. After you receive the car, inspect it (for 3 days) and register it on your name, eBay will release the payment to me. If, by any reason, you won't be satisfied with it ( even though I can assure you that it is exactly as described), you can refuse the car and ask for a full refund of your deposit, no questions asked. You will keep the car for few days until i will find another buyer in your area, and there will be no need for you to ship the car back. I think this is more than fair for both of us.

I will handle the shipping. The car will be shipped via US Air Military Cargo, so i will not pay shipping fees. You will get the car in 3-4 days.

The deal WILL BE MADE UNDER THE eBay Motors RULES AND POLICIES. Both of us will be protected. I WILL NOT DEAL OUTSIDE EBAY UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!!!

If you want to move forward, I will need to know your full name, shipping address and phone number. Once I will receive your details, I will forward the details for our transaction to eBay Motors, and after that, they will send us all the intructions of the transaction.

I have my US cell phone with me so if you want to call me, you can find me at +1 (650) 763 2309
Looking forward to hearing from you.


Lt. Paul Vaughan
Phone: +1 (650) 763 2309

BigD:
I had similiar conversations in past few days from Lt. Paul Vaughn. Any evidence that this is a scam?

I believe so. I was looking into purchasing a car from him and he refused to give me his army email. I WOULD NOT do business with this person! I just found out tonight from someone i know. His name and accent didn't match either it was weird he sounded arabic.

I also saw that ad and e-mailed him, and got the same message but with a different number. Then I decided to google him and see if there was something unsafe about him, and thats when I found this. Is he a scam?

Hello all, I as well saw the ad and contacted this Lt. guy. I recieved the same e-mail as above. I truly believe this is a scam. I stopped contacting him once he proceeded to ask for the money order. No way, no how. Before purchasing a car, you want to see it, make sure what you see in pictures is what your going to get. Good luck to all!!

I contacted this guy about the car and he gave me the same spill as "mini cooper."  However when he mentioned ebay,  I went online to ebay to check it out. First I did not see the car listed their for sale. Then I when to ebay moter security center and found out that the Ebay Vpp was a fraudulent name/company. Hence his insistance not doing business any other way. I gave him my email address I hope that causes me no problem. But I stopped I believe in time.  Be ware!!   Also he was saying he was in the military and when I started question he got all Italian or something me (my english is bad).

This guy contacted me, but thankfully my fiancee alerted me and we checked out the number here.

I think I just got duped. I fell for this.

This phone number used by Internet Fraud scam based in Italy (?).  Scammer posts adds in used car online sites like oodles.com saying he's in the military and needs to sell the car fast.  Major fraud.