A Kansas City ex-convict was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury for allegedly running a classic car scam in which he sold cars he didn’t own.
The Kansas City Star reported 50-year-old Travis D. Oberg was indicted on charges of wire fraud and transportation of a stolen vehicle. He has previously spent time in prison on other fraud-related charges.
Oberg was allegedly doing business through a company he started called Maaco Sales and Reconditioning. There is no affiliation with the longstanding MAACO collision repair and automotive painting company.
“Oberg used the Maaco company name as a pretense to imply that he was involved in a legitimate automobile-related business,” the indictment said.
Under the scam, Oberg would show prospective buyers titles and photos of cars he did not own. The Star said one victim in Connecticut sent Oberg $53,000 in July 2017 to purchase four cars: a 1973 BMW, a 1988 Mercedes-Benz 560 SL, a 1985 Porsche 911 and a 1967 Jaguar XKE.
In August 2017, Oberg allegedly accepted $37,000 from the manager of the Beverly Hills Car Club for the same Porsche and Jaguar he supposedly sold to the victim in Connecticut.
Oberg never delivered the vehicles. Some victims were sent photos of refund checks, but they never received those.
Oberg, who was also charged with transporting a stolen 1957 Ford Thunderbird to Connecticut in June 2017, has been in federal custody since March. His parole was revoked in a separate fraud case.
In December, the Better Business Bureau issued a warning about Oberg and said he was a known fraudster. In that warning, the BBB said Oberg had allegedly tried to sell a victim two 1966 Chevrolet Impalas he did not own.
These consignment places continue to defraud, which gives the legitimate places a bad name too. However, it’s amazing how people fall for a “too cheap” price. Either of those packages are way underpriced if they actually included an XKE (even a basket case). I fell for a similar Ferrari deal thru Hemmings many years ago. FBI was involved. Unfortunately I was the only person who got his $$$ back-the others didn’t & the guy disappeared 😖
He looks like a used car dealer to me.
What a freaking dirtbag.
There’s a sucker born every minute!!
Selling cars he doesn’t own? Kinda reminds me of a Mecum auction!
LOL !!!
Back in the end of July i was looking to buy a 66 or 67 SS Nova (Chevy II) it was a beautiful car, it was a woman claiming her husband just died of heart attack & just wanted the car gone because it was too painful to look at,brought back memories she didn’t want to deal with. Her & her daughter moved across country & moved in with her parents, sold their house too because she couldn’t handle memories everywhere she looked. She said the car was already at the shipping company because the previous buyer couldn’t get approved for the loan at the last minute. I thought it was too good of a deal to pass up,& felt bad for her. I was all set to pull the trigger, then i thought i want to drive the car home. So i wanted to speak to her on the phone, that’s when the excuses started. She had just came down with laryngitis & can’t speak,& this and that. So i called the shipping company because i really wanted & was hoping this was legit? Well when i called the shipping company the creep who answered could barely speak English, when i asked him to repeat what he said because i couldn’t understand him,i asked what state they were in & he had to think for a few seconds (about 10 seconds) then he finally said location. I said again i can’t understand you can i speak with a co-worker next to you or somebody who can speak clear English, click he hung up. I was relieved & upset at the same time because i wanted this car,it was my dream car. But at the same time i didn’t just get suckered out of $10,000. So i kept looking at Nova’s across the country that were for sale. I found another one. This time the guy was overseas working for a big gas & oil company as a big wig in the company. Again the car was already at the shipping company & if i bought it he would ship it free for some reason i can’t remember why? Same crap this time i wasn’t falling for it. Be careful out there a lot of scumbags!!!
I had a similar experience three times by three different sellers (fraudsters). The common threads
1 – Cars were in excellent condition and 30 to 50% below market price
2 – Sellers (scammers) were out of the country and had to sell asap for work / divorce reasons
3 – All three involved shipping the car to me (price included shipping)
One had a 3rd party shipping company, web site, guy who barely spoke English, my bank could not contact their bank.
Stay away from great buys requiring shipping.
Im actually missing a 1966 belair that is exactly like the 1966 impala ..was it dark blue?????