A dream trip around Australia has ended for a Camperdown district couple who were caught in a cruel hoax, robbing them of $13,700 of their savings.
"We just feel like idiots," the man, who did not want to be named said yesterday.
"Now we're wondering how many other people he has scammed."
The couple responded to a classified advertisement in The Standard two weeks ago for a 2006 Jayco caravan.
It was advertised for $9650 and featured a swag of extras including a reverse-cycle air conditioner, LCD television and wireless sensor parking system.
The advertiser provided a telephone number and an email address as contact points.
A check of caravan trading sites shows similar vans selling for about $49,000.
"We saw the ad last Tuesday. To be honest, we thought a 2 was missing off the front of the price," the man explained.
After unsuccessfully trying to contact the seller by phone three times, he sent an email.
He received a reply saying the seller was presently in the United Kingdom and was going through a divorce so he was selling the caravan for a cheap price to get rid of it.
The seller referred the man to a fake Ebay account which requested a money transfer through Western Union with a promise that he was able to provide a credit guarantee of up to $15,000 if there were any problems.
The prospective buyer asked for the registration and VIN numbers which he checked to confirm there was no money outstanding on the vehicle.
The couple transferred $9650 as requested and were told the van would be delivered within 24 hours, but when this didn't occur he became concerned.
He emailed the seller again who said he had been in an argument with his wife about the cheap price of the van. She claimed it was worth at least $12,000.
Still thinking he was getting a bargain, the man agreed to pay the additional money.
When the caravan still didn't turn up as promised, he again contacted the seller by email to be told it would cost another $1700 for shipping and insurance charges.
"I told him to forget about it and asked for my money back."
The seller told him, under the conditions of his guarantee, the man actually had to get the van delivered and sign for it before any money could be refunded.
Believing it was his only option to recover their money, the couple transferred another $1700 to the seller on Monday.
When the vehicle once again failed to turn up on Tuesday as promised and unable to get a response to any emails, the couple contacted Camperdown police who are now investigating the incident.
The man admitted to being naive when it came to buying anything online.
"We did get a little bit suspicious when he asked us for the second amount of money, but we though we'd checked it out with the guarantee."
"It ended up costing us $13,700 and it's a warning to other people to be very careful," the man told The Standard.
"This was going to be our dream - to retire in a few years and go around Australia. I've just lost interest in caravans at all now."
The Standard's advertising manager Frank Davidson said the company contacted police as soon as they realised the advertisement was suspicious.
"We had a number of readers tell us that they had been unable to contact the seller on the phone and his return emails looked suspicious, so we pulled the advertisement immediately," Mr Davidson said.
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