A Merseyside nan is heartbroken after being scammed out of £10,000 on eBay.
Eileen Allen from the Wirral spotted an advert for a motorhome on the online marketplace last month. Having recently re-mortgaged her home and lowered her hours in her NHS job, she was hoping to treat herself.
The nan of five told the ECHO: "I thought I might as well buy something and enjoy my life. I'm 63 this year. This is a dream, I've always wanted one of these. It's heartbreaking really."
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Eileen initially replied to the £27,500 listing for a 2017 Elddis Evolution 196 asking if the seller would take £24,000, and after no reply she upped her offer to £26,000.
She added: "The seller said she'd had a dealer on the phone but would rather sell it to a person to get more enjoyment out of it. She said if I paid 30% it would be mine and she'd send me an email. I didn't think for one minute I was being duped. I said I'd pay as long as she sent me a receipt."
The initial payment of £7,800, to a bank account under the name 'Jemma Hancox', took longer than expected to process. Eileen said the seller called her the next day crying and told her she would have to give her the money back as she was "scared" the remainder of the funds wouldn't go through on the day they had arranged for collection.
Eileen agreed to pay a further £2,200 in order to secure the motorhome, which she said she would pick up on Sunday, April 30, from an address in Sheffield.
Eileen added: "She had the answers at the click of a finger. We actually went looking for places to store it. She answered the phone every time, told me there was a tracker on it and even what insurer to use."
Alarm bells started to ring for Eileen on the evening of April 28. She said: "After I asked about the tracker she rang me back and said the £2,200 payment didn't go through. I said it had, it had left my bank account.
"I rang the bank and while I was on the phone they said 'do you think it's genuine?' I started to suspect her because she was insisting the money hadn't gone through. I left a voicemail saying I'd pay the full amount and she rang me back straight away. I told her I knew it was a scam and she put the phone down."
Eileen has since been in contact with the motorhome's legitimate owner, after seeing the same vehicle listed for sale on Auto Trader. He claims he reported the listing to eBay "several times" on Thursday, April 27, but the post wasn't taken down until the following evening.
Eileen has also been in touch with a family in Northern Ireland who transferred the same eBay seller £6,500 to secure the motorhome. Mum of three Jacqueline Crawford, 43, from County Antrim, told the ECHO her family are "devastated". She added: "We've been looking for a campervan for a couple of years. I fell in love with it."
After responding to the eBay listing, Jacqueline carried out some due diligence and eventually sent a £1,000 deposit to 'Jemma Hancox', although they were different bank details to the ones used by Eileen. The seller then pressed for a further £5,500 as 'another dealer in Ireland was interested'.
Jacqueline said: "I asked her for photo ID and a receipt for the deposit. They sent me the name, address, registration - they were so, so, so convincing. No matter what I asked she had the answer. I did a vehicle check and everything was matching up."
Jacqueline was shown a VC5, or log book, for the motorhome, which was registered to an address in Sheffield. She was unable to send the full deposit in one go due to limits on her account and the seller called Jacqueline crying the following day, just as she had with Eileen. Under pressure, the family transferred the £5,500.
Jacqueline added: "I sent her daughter an email and asked for the photo ID and receipt. There was no response. I rang, got no answer. I called on the Saturday and the phone was off. I kept thinking 'what am I going to do? We've lost this money'."
Both women reported the ads - which have since been taken down - to eBay and are now in touch with eachother. They've also reported the incident to police and Action Fraud.
Eileen said she thinks listing should be more thoroughly verified by the online marketplace, including phone numbers. She added: "It's very hard to contact eBay. They make it as difficult as possible. When I did manage, they put me through to America."
Eileen said the situation has left her "in shock" and there has been a greater emotional impact than financial.
eBay told the ECHO the seller's account is under review and it will take the appropriate action if it finds any evidence of fraud or criminal activity.
A spokesperson said: "We strongly recommend that anyone buying a vehicle on eBay view it in person before transferring any money. In the very rare instance that one of our users is a victim of a scam, we advise them to report it immediately to their local police force, Action Fraud and eBay.
"We have dedicated teams that work closely with law enforcement, and they can investigate reported sellers and provide evidence to police as requested."
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