Steve Collins

Victim Location 97913

Total money lost $3,000

Type of a scam Online Purchase

I saw an ad on Craigslist, Boise, I responded to it. The number actually belonged to sellers child. The child then directed me to "Sgt. Steve Collins" working out of Mt. Home Air Force Base after some emails with Sgt. Collins he directed to a eBay motor auction for a 2000 Jeep Wrangler Sport. I bought the vehicle, and payed what i thought was the VPP deposit. Unknown to me the VPP page was fake, only difference between the fake and the real VPP page is that the actual VPP page doesn’t have you use Vanilla One debit cards. Which is exactly what this page used! I even got email messages from this phony VPP confirming these deposits. The next day i got an other email from the fake VPP saying after further inspection the vehicle was worth more then the seller was selling it for, and for insurance purposes during the 10 day inspection period of the Jeep that I would have to put another 1,000 dollars down. So i did, this phony VPP confirmed that the deposit was all squared away. Shortly after "Sgt. Collins" actually started coordinating with me about picking up the Jeep in Boise, ID. That was the 28th and I haven’t heard from him since, when i went to eBay about my purchase they couldn’t find the transaction anywhere. Went to the motor department, and they couldn’t find the transaction anywhere. There they also told me they didn’t use Vanilla One cards, that’s when we realized it was a scam