When buying things over the Internet it is easy to become the victim of fraud…recently a Brownwood man found out the hard way.
According to Brownwood Police reports, an officer spoke to the victim on Wednesday about the fraud that happened February 10th. Reports show the man had noticed a 2007 Cadillac Escalade posted for sale on the internet classified website Craig’s List. The asking price was $10,800 and the victim contacted the listed owner by email for more information. He was given a response with details of the vehicle from a person named “Jane”. When the man asked for a phone number, “Jane” indicated that she had lost her phone.
Reports further showed that the Brownwood man received an “Ebay Customer Invoice” for the purchase of the vehicle and then transferred the money from his Mid-Tex Credit Union account to a US Bank account.
After a few days passed and not hearing anything from the seller, the man spoke to a representative from his bank who gave him some options of where to begin trying to resolve the possible fraud. The police report states that the man then called US Bank regarding the situation. The representative from US Bank advised him that they have been “watching that particular account” but that they could not release any additional information. Ebay was the next call for the man, who then learned that Ebay does not conduct any type of business through a third party provider and that this was possibly a scam. He was advised to contact the local police and file a report.
