Like they say, "if it's too good to be true...." 

I have been pining for a Series Two E Type Jaguar roadster for a very long time.  So imagine my excitement to find a very nice car, in Virginia, at a buy it now price of only $9,000.  The car was easily worth $25 K+.  I composed a very nice email, asking about the price, the condition of the vehicle, and the seller's willingness to accept a mechanic's on-site inspection of the car.

In the meantime, I had an eerie recollection that I had seen that car before.  I did a search of completed auctions, and found the same vehicle, item number 320185806503.  This was an apparently authentic auciton, with a seller in Canada.  Although there were 24 bidders, with a high bid of nearly $24 K, the car never reached its reserve.

So, I went back and looked once more at the new auction, and noticed that the auction had ended early.  The registered user posted an additional comment, stating, "My user name and password have been compromised.  This car is a $%%!@@@ scam.  Do not bid on this car."  The auction, item number 140187860266, has since been completely pulled by eBay.

This morning, I received an email response from the "seller."  I thought that people might benefit from the wording of his email, and his address.  It reads as follows:

>Hi Kyle,
Thank you for your email and sorry for my late reply. First of all the car belonged to my father, he was the first and only owner, and after he passed away 7 moths ago, he left the car to me. I do not now much about this car, only that it has 70565 miles, and the last oil change was at 69000. I can let you know that it has a clean US title, it has no scratches or dents, and it runs perfectly, I've took it for a drive before I left US, and I didn't drove it since then. Anyway I have all the receipts and for all the work that has been made on it. The car is now in Belgrad,Serbie with me, and it is just as I received it, when I've moved here 1 moth ago, because I found a better job. I've tried to register it here but the odometer is in miles, and to make it street legal,I'll have to pay around $5,000 US money that I cannot afford because I want to buy a house, so I've decided to sell it. The total price that you'll have to pay for this car is $9,000 US, price that includes shipping taxes and insurance. All of my transactions until now were made under eBay's protection, and for that I wish that we make this deal also with eBay's protection. If you agree with moving forward with the deal through eBay please email me your full name and shipping address. As soon as I receive these information from you I will forward them to eBay SquareTrade along with the rest of the details in order for them to open a case regarding our deal. I am waiting for email as soon as possible.
Best regards,
>Chris Walsh, c1walsh@yahoo.com

I have to admit that if the registered user had not posted the additional comments, and if I had not recognized the car, I might have fallen for it, thinking that I was protected through Square Trade.  Needless to say, I will be very suspicious of Buy it Now through Square Trade.  My best advice is to do your homework, and closely follow eBay's tips on safe trading.  I work hard for a living, and it pisses me off that some disreputable clown somewhere is making money off of scams, like these.

Happy Bidding,

Kyle