Enyaeva Michelin, 17, has been saving
her hard-earned money for three years to surprise her parents with the
ultimate Christmas gift: a car, to help the Evanston family of five get
around. But those plans were quashed after thieves lured the Evanston
high school student into an elaborate new gift card scam, walking off
with her cash.
"I saw an ad for
the perfect car I was like this is awesome. I can use this for my
family," Michelin said. "So I was like this is perfect. The price was
great."
An attractive price tag at $1,200, was accompanied by one more thing that sucked her in.
"So
she was saying that her husband had passed and she was in need of money
quickly because she just wanted to sell the car and it brings back bad
memories," Michelin recalled.
That “grieving widow” then sent Michelin an invoice for the car from “eBay Motors.”
"And I looked up eBay Motors,” Michelin said. “It’s a real company. It’s legit. Like they sell car parts and everything."
Michelin
says “customer service” instructed her to buy $1,200 worth of eBay gift
cards to pay for the car – which she did – by reading the numbers aloud
over the phone.
"Which at the time I was like sure of course. eBay, eBay cards, eBay motors. It all makes sense," Michelin said.
What
didn’t make sense? Michelin didn’t hear a word from “eBay Motors” until
she reached out to ask for an update. And that is when her heart sank.
"We’re
going to need basically going to need another $1,000 to cover cargo
issues," Michelin was told. "All I can describe is I felt sick and I
just kind of started crying."
As
it turns out, her instincts were right. After NBC 5 Responds asked eBay
to look in to Michelin’s case, the company described it as full of
“major red flags” and confirmed Michelin was the victim of an elaborate
scam using gift cards as payment.
Also read- http://techalertslive.blogspot.com/2018/01/here-are-things-at-ces-youll-actually.html
Also read- http://techalertslive.blogspot.com/2018/01/here-are-things-at-ces-youll-actually.html
A problem so widespread, eBay also shared this warning to consumers in their statement to NBC 5 Responds:
This
incident was a scam as it did not take place on eBay Motors.
Unfortunately, scam artists will list vehicles for sale on fake landing
pages, Craigslist or other non-eBay trading sites, and promise eBay’s
protection as a means of completing the scam. Criminals often exploit
well-known, trusted brand names like eBay to attract consumers and then
lure them onto fake websites and into fraudulent transactions. We always
encourage all our shoppers to be cautious when they aren’t purchasing a
vehicle directly through the eBay website. We provide tips for safe car
shopping and warning signs to look out for scams on the eBay Motors Security Center page.
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