SIMSBURY, Conn. -- A Simsbury man said a case of mistaken identity has his phone ringing off the hook.

Paul McCartney said Toyota representatives began calling him late last year, claiming he owed the company money. The problem, he said, was that they had the wrong customer.

"I didn't know what was going on," he said. "I kept getting phone calls from -- they kept asking for a guy named Jaron, and there's no Jaron here."

McCartney, who said he doesn't own a Toyota and never has, told the Channel 3 I-Team that the callers were looking for a Jaron Mazurowski. He said they told him Mazurowski was behind on his car payments and that McCartney's was the only number they had on file.

Despite pleas to stop calling, McCartney said he's received hundreds of calls over the past six months.

"I haven't a clue how they got my number and what is really annoying is that there's nobody down at Toyota that seems to know how to end these calls," he said.

McCartney said he then started asking the callers to prove that they were really from Toyota by telling him the information he provided on his credit application. He said that over several weeks, they told him Mazurowski's birth date, Social Security number, address, workplace, the make and model of his car, the loan number and even the VIN number from the car.

McCartney said he was stunned.

"Fortunately for this Jaron guy, his information got into my hands and not to the hands of a thief," McCartney said.

But despite having all of Mazurowski's personal information, McCartney still couldn't figure out how to get the calls to stop.

He said then decided to take another approach. He said he told the callers that he was going to commit identity theft.

He said the callers responded by saying, "That would be very immature of you, sir."

He said even those efforts didn't stop the callers from revealing Mazurowski information over and over.

Finally, McCartney called the I-Team.

"I don't know what's gonna happen at this point, but I'm hoping that once they see it on Channel 3, they'll put an end to these calls," he said.

After spending months searching for the car and making hundreds of phone calls to the wrong person, giving out personal information, Toyota representatives said they were just trying to track down the car.

But the I-Team found the car without any trouble.

After finding the car with the exact 17-digit VIN number that Toyota gave McCartney, it only took the I-Team a couple of hours to track down Mazurowski, who confirmed that the birth date and Social Security number given to McCartney belonged to him.

The I-Team also found Mazurowski's New Britain apartment and confirmed that he works for the American Red Cross in Farmington, just like Toyota said.

While Toyota apparently couldn't find it, the I-Team confirmed that the Acura the I-Team tracked down in New Britain was the one for which the company was looking.

"I would never give them my Social Security number or date of birth or any personal information based on what I've seen so far," McCartney said.

Toyota told the I-Team that the only reason they kept calling was that their records show McCartney told them several times that they had the right number. They said once that happens, it becomes difficult to stop the calls. The company said people try to dodge payments by saying "wrong number" all the time.

A spokesman from the company said, "It appears some of Mr. Mazurowski's personal information was mistakenly conveyed to Mr. McCartney who was not authorized to receive such information. We apologize to Mr. Mazurowski for the error. We take this and any other phishing attempt very seriously and our customer service and collections representatives will be revisiting authentication procedures with their managers."

Toyota said that anyone who receives a call looking for someone else should stay on the line and clearly state from the beginning that the caller has the wrong number. They said McCartney started asking for the calls to stop much too late.

"I asked them, 'Can you get in touch with your customer service department, tell them this is a wrong number? Please, I'm begging you,' " McCartney said.

Jaron's mother told the I-Team that he has since caught up on his loan and that he plans to call Toyota to ensure that they have the correct number.