Stephanie Avery – Craigslist

Victim Location 75051

Total money lost $1,000

Type of a scam Online Purchase

I put in my zip code with a search I conducted on Craigslist, for cars. I normally do not make online purchases, however I looked just to see. I saw a beautiful Nissan Altima and emailed about it. I received a response in no more than 10 minutes. The individual said their name was Stephanie Avery and told me: she was in the military preparing to deploy, the car was driven by her husband (who died) 4 months prior, it would be cheaper to sell rather than store it, it was a great car, etc. As you can see, it seemed like a good deal. However the saying is true "if it seems too good to be true, it is". I received an email from "Ebay Motors" with the name of a "verified Ebay Agent". This person was to be the designated middle person. We emailed back and forth and she insisted on me making the payment and notifying her when I did so. She said Ebay Motors would be handling the shipment of the car. The way it was supposed to work was this: I made the payment at Walmart, via money transfer, payment verifed, car shipped. Simple. Only, it wasn’t. I made the payment, received a verification email, then received another email asking for an additional $1000 for shipping insurance. I started asking questions. The individual never spoke of my need to cover shipping and acted clueless, however never hesitated to ask me to make the payment. It was described as though they would ship it, once I made the payment. Well, long story short, $1000 lost, no car shipped or received, and frustration at an all time high. I needed that car and was unaware this was a scam. I have 3 children who start school in 2 weeks, that I drive to school.