Wigan dad left thousands of pounds out of pocket by scam eBay motorhome seller

Paul Hoggard replied to the advert for a motorhome, which was on sale for £24,500 on the popular shopping platform. He agreed to pay a deposit of £4,500, and hand over the balance on a satisfactory examination of the vehicle, a Peugeot Elddis Aspire 255.

The dad had hoped to purchase the motorhome to replace his existing camper van and enjoy trips to Scotland and Wales with wife Sharon.

After paying the deposit, Paul, 48, arranged to travel to Bishop's Stortford near Essex, where the motorhome was being stored, and to drive it back after buying it - a round trip of over 400 miles.

The dad-of-two, from Abram, said: "I was alerted by my brother that it could possibly be a scam so I went to the bank to check if was possibly the case .

"I contacted the seller whilst in the bank and he offered me the money back if I thought this was the case .I didn’t take this opportunity up and the manager didn’t think is was a scam either, and I decided to collect the van as arranged.

"The next morning the seller rang me again and asked me if I have had a good night sleep after yesterdays scare thinking it was a scam and was I still ok to collect the van today at 4pm. He said he would do a walk round video and forward me the documents I requested.

"I finished work at about 12 noon and set off down to the address to pick the van up.

"An hour into the journey, I ring him up to see if he could do the video. He said he would call me back in 10 minutes but never did, so I called him again. He answered and said he was busy and would call me back in five minutes, but again he never did .

"When we arrived at the address we were given there was no one there, so we went to the police station to report the matter."

Paul said the seller later posted the exact same advertisement on eBay again, this time with a different contact number. He then tried to set a trap by getting his grown-up son to ring him - and the scammer duly got in contact to try and get another £4,500 out of them.

Paul has now reported the matter to Action Fraud - the national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime which collects reports about fraud on behalf of the police.

The listing has also been removed by eBay, while the seller could face sanctions including account suspension or a permanent ban.

An eBay spokesperson said: “We strongly recommend that anyone buying a vehicle on eBay view it in person before transferring any money. In the very rare instance that one of our users is a victim of a scam, we advise them to report it immediately to their local police force, Action Fraud and eBay.

“We have dedicated teams that work closely with law enforcement, and they can investigate reported sellers and provide evidence to police as requested.”