SPOKANE, Wash. – A Spokane man was scammed out of $2,000 online after attempting to buy a second car, only priced at $800 in Montana, using eBay gift cards.
“It seemed at first too good to be true,” Paul Spencer, the scam victim, said. “This is the first time I’ve tried to do anything like this online.”
When Paul Spencer found a deal on Facebook Marketplace for a 2008 Nissan Altima being sold for only $800 dollars, he thought he hit the jackpot.
“91,000 miles, loaded, had leather, moonroof, not a scratch on it, never wrecked, never anything,” he said.
The seller was portrayed as an army nurse from Helena, Montana, who was going back on active duty somewhere in the Middle East. Spencer said the “seller” claimed her husband had died due to a stroke and the car was his; it was hardly driven, gathering dust in storage.
The alleged seller told Spencer eBay motors would be taking over the transaction, since they were headed out of the country to base. And who he thought was eBay motors told Spencer he had to pay for the car using multiple Ebay gift cards maxed out at $2000. When he bought all the cards, Spencer said even the cashiers questioned what was going on.
“And I said, oh no, no this is legit,” Spencer said.
Well, he paid the $800, and the next morning Spencer got a text saying the car was his. But now, Spencer was told he needed to pay for shipping insurance, which led to 600 more dollars out of the bank. And if that wasn’t enough, Spencer was asked for another 600 for what the scammers called a “duty payment.”
In total, Spencer sent over $2,000 in eBay gift cards to who he thought was an established agency.
“Something to point out with this scam is we’ve nicknamed these “virtual vehicle scams” and they actually are, these ones specifically, definitely on the rise,” said Cameron Nakashima, Media Engagement & Digital Campaigns Manager for the Better Business Bureau (BBB) said.
Nakashima said from 2022 to 2023 there’s been a 30 percent increase in these types of scams, which is not necessarily surprising in our growing digital world. The BBB said the number one way to know you’re paying in a legitimate way is to never go outside the system.
“You absolutely should be using a credit card when making those online purchases just to be safe that way if it does turn out to be a scam, you can dispute those charges,” Nakashima said. “And, as long as it’s a trusted platform then you should be clear to use a credit card on that site, and that’s going to be your safest way to handle your money.”
As for Spencer, he said this is a lesson learned.
“And the resolution I’m wanting is to either have my $2,000 returned or barring that, just having a second car,” he said.
The BBB said at this point, Spencer and anyone who falls victim to a scam like this, should first notify their local police and they can also contact a larger agency, like the FBI to report the crime.
On top of that, scam victims are encouraged to talk with their financial institution, and anyone involved with the transaction in any hope of getting their money back.
