A surfer bought a laptop on eBay for hundreds of pounds \u2013 but was sent a photocopy picture of it instead.<\/p>\n
Paul Barrington, 38, fell victim to the scam after winning the auction for an Apple MacBook.<\/p>\n
His winning bid was \u00a3300 for the top-of-the-range machine that can cost up to \u00a31,500 when bought new.<\/p>\n
But the bargain proved too good to be true when a feather-weight\u00a0package arrived a few days later in a small, square box.<\/p>\n
It contained only a black-and-white photocopy of a photo of what Paul thought he had ordered.<\/p>\n
Paul, of Ilfracombe, Devon, had been forced to sell his last surf board to pay for the laptop and was hoping to use it to launch a new career as a wedding DJ.<\/p>\n
He has since been given a refund.<\/p>\n
He said: \u2018I sold my pride and joy for a piece of paper.<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s the first time I haven\u2019t had a surfboard since I was 10 years old but I need a laptop so I checked the listing and the seller\u2019s rating.<\/p>\n
\u2018He\u2019d been a member for a few years, so there was nothing to be suspicious about.<\/p>\n
\u2018I was excited about winning the auction and just thought, \u2018I\u2019ve got a laptop so I can start the business\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u2018The package was as light as a feather. Why bother sending a picture in a box? It doesn\u2019t make any sense. I almost had to laugh.\u2019<\/p>\n
He has has been in and out of hospital in recent months with a lung condition known as Bullous Emphesima, which has meant he is unable to surf and had to give up his job in child care.<\/p>\n
\u2018The worst thing is, I\u2019m trying to set up a business and this is a massive delay,\u2019<\/p>\n
A spokesman for eBay said: \u2018We were very sorry to hear about Mr Barrington\u2019s unusual experience. We\u2019ll make sure he gets a refund as soon as possible and investigate the circumstances around this sale.<\/p>\n
\u2018eBay takes the issue of fraud very seriously, with more than 149 million active global users engaged in transactions across 50,000 unique categories.<\/p>\n
\u2018At any given moment, over 800 million listings are offered for sale on eBay globally \u2013 with the overwhelming majority of listings on eBay coming from honest and law-abiding sellers.\u2019<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: Metro UK<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A surfer bought a laptop on eBay for hundreds of pounds \u2013 but was sent a photocopy picture of it instead. Paul Barrington, 38, fell victim to the scam after winning the auction for an Apple MacBook. His winning bid was \u00a3300 for the top-of-the-range machine that can cost up to \u00a31,500 when bought new. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-89465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-togbe-afede-xiv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=89465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89465\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=89465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=89465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=89465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}