Umm (sorry, i must improve my english skills ...)

"I'm just giving it junk on the path." It seems to be the problem. You must pass a well formed path (user@(dns-name|ip-address):/path/to/somewhere), or scp will acts as a simple 'cp' or copy.

try this errors:

• dns name does not exist
• host is down
• target directory does not exist
• user incorrect (you must pass the password)

Regards

turo