It’s like your parents always told you: if something’s too good to be true, it probably is.

Or, translated into the online world: if a guy in Romania claiming to be an American service member overseas wants to sell you a Mercedes at a really good price and all you have to do is send some money to an escrow account, he’s probably scamming you.

On Friday, a Romanian man was sentenced by a federal judge in Tennessee to two years and five months in prison for participating in a scheme to defraud Americans out of over $870,000 in goods that never existed.

Vlad Diaconu, 37, of Bucharest, Romania, pleaded guilty to fraud back in March 2017, admitting that he had listed nonexistent cars on eBay and other websites. He and his cohorts would entice dozens of victims to put up money in what they believed was an escrow account when, in fact, it was an account held by criminals. Diaconu would then transfer the money to European bank accounts.

In an earlier court filing, Diaconu’s lawyer had asked that his client only receive 25 months (two years and one month) in prison, saying that his client had already suffered enough. After being arrested, Diaconu was detained in a Romanian jail cell for over three months where, once a day, he was only served “something of porridge” poured from a jug.

Back in 2013, American authorities also indicted other Romanians on similar charges.