Buying a car online . Beware!

I moved here a couple of months ago. (9 months to be exact)  And so far we only had one vehicle. On my search online for a vehicle I came across a classified website for Puerto Rico. Because my spanish is so so I focused on the ads that were in English. I came across a car that caught my eye. And I emailed the buyer. He claimed he lived in PR and was transfered to Michigan and while he was there he bought another vehicle. So he was selling the one he had in PR.  The first thing that caught my attention is that he did not speak spanish at ALL. Secondly he claimed to be in Michigan but his phone number is from Ohio. Third.. I was able to zoom in on one of the pictures and copy the VIN number and called the Departamento de Hacienda in Puerto Rico and found out the car has never been in PR and in fact the car is currently  repossessed  by the bank  in the state of Texas. I later received an email by him ( with another name)  "lowering" the price even further  and that all I needed to do was give him my address and pay through paypal and the Escrow shipping company would deliver it to my house.

I reported the ad in clasificados online and it was taken down. But today he put it up again under another name and put up only one picture of the vehicle.  So please beware of when buying vehicles online. I wanted to share this because I know many of us just moving here are looking for a vehicle. And for future expats scammers are  everywhere. I advise you to always ask for a VIN number and call the departamento of hacienda to find out if the vehicle paid taxes or if it owes tickets.