Mother warns others about Craigslist scammers

ROSENBERG, Texas – Raquel Aldridge is a single mom of three kids, who has been trying to get back on her feet after a divorce. 

She and her children have been staying with her brother, his wife and their son in a mobile home in Rosenberg. 

“We just wanted our own place, something for us,” Aldridge said, through tears. “We haven’t had that in a really long time.”

Aldridge has been saving her money for almost a year so she could buy her own travel trailer.  Her grandfather owns a lot of land in Rosenberg and she wanted to park her trailer behind her close family members. 

She found an ad on Craigslist for a $2500 trailer and contacted the seller.

“He said he was a military man and the reason he was selling the camper was because he was being deployed overseas and didn’t want to pay storage fees,” she said. 

Aldridge said she trusted the man even more because he told her he was in the military.   

“I thought, ‘Wow, that’s really great that I came upon this!  A military man, he’s got to be honorable,” she said.

The seller told Aldridge he was going to use eBay to complete the transaction. She said he told her the ad was posted on Craigslist, because it was “safer” and he wanted to use their protection plan. 

 She started to get emails from eBay verifying the sale and they looked very legitimate.  The seller instructed Aldridge to purchase $2,500 in prepaid gift cards, then call back with the card information. 

She did as she was told, but when the seller wanted more money she grew suspicious. Aldridge tried to cancel the transaction, but it was too late.  The whole thing was fake.  

“I knew I had been scammed out of $2500,” she said.  “I’m stuck. I’m right back at square one.”

Channel 2 reached out to Ebay and this was there statement:

“This incident was a scam as it did not take place on eBay Motors. Unfortunately, scam artists will list vehicles for sale on fake landing pages, Craigslist or other non-eBay trading sites, and promise eBay’s protection as a means of completing the scam. Criminals often exploit well-known, trusted brand names like eBay to attract consumers and then lure them onto fake websites and into fraudulent transactions.

“We always encourage all our shoppers to be cautious when they aren’t purchasing a vehicle directly through the eBay website. We provide tips for safe car shopping and warning signs to look out for scams on the eBay Motors Security Center page.”

Aldridge notified the police and wanted to make sure others were aware of this scam.

“It’s going to be hard, really hard, but we will get through it and we’ll make it,” she said. “We made it before.”

Click the link to see common warning signs from eBay.

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