A woman claiming to be a police officer living in Dundee allegedly scammed a family out of thousands of pounds, leaving them homeless.
Ben Machin, 21, said his family discovered the house they had been renting for eight years was going up for sale and they had to quickly find somewhere else to live.
After the family found their dream house on Facebook Marketplace, they reach out to the person who posted the property ad.
The woman claimed to be a police officer, currently in Dundee with her family, therefore the rental process of the property would be handled by Airbnb.
Ben, who lives in St Blazey, Cornwall, told Cornwall Live : "It looked really good and promising. It had a garden which mum liked and it was big. The house we are in now can't even fit a proper bed in my room. It was a massive improvement."
After being told they would lose out on the property if they didn't pay a £1,480 deposit, the desperate family agreed to hand over the cash. Ben said that's when things went south.
He says numerous emails were exchanged between his family and the woman, who insisted the money had failed to go through.
Ben now realises the woman was only trying to stall his family so that they would struggle to recover their stolen money.
His retired father, who suffers with diabetes, has now had no other choice but to take money from his pension to help his family survive.
Ben said: "His stress levels are through the roof. Everyone is really stressed. My sister thought my dad wouldn't want to speak to her again because she found the ad and blamed herself. We are trying to find the money again and we have to try and put trust in people again."
The family have been left with no other choice but to move their belongings into storage while they rent a holiday cottage in Liskeard for a few weeks.
After that, "the future is uncertain".
With Christmas just around the corner, Ben explained the situation couldn't have come at a worse time.
He now wants to share his family's story to make sure others do not fall victim to similar scams online. If you believe fraud has been committed to you, report it to ActionFraud.
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