A teenager travelled 70 miles to confront scammers who tricked him into sending them his Apple MacBook.
Blake Walker, from Whitfield, discovered he had been duped after ‘selling’ the £650 laptop on eBay and posting it to an address in Essex.
Blake, who works in a shop, listed the laptop for sale on June 29, and it was quickly sold.
He received what he believed to be a genuine email from eBay, telling him the buyer had paid the money – but that this would only be deposited into his account after he provided proof that the laptop had been posted.
Blake posted the computer by recorded delivery to the correct address, but the money never appeared in his account.
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When he contacted eBay, he was told he had likely fallen victim to a scam and that fraudsters had probably obtained his email address when he sent a video of the laptop before it was posted.
Though he reported the incident to Kent Police, he said no progress was made as he was passed between forces in Kent, London and Essex.
Concerned officers would not act quickly enough, he and his mum decided to drive to the property themselves.
Blake’s mum even prepared an empty parcel so she could pose as a delivery driver in the event they were turned away.
As it turned out, the address was a restaurant.
Blake told KentOnline: ‘There were quite a few of them, so I wouldn’t say it was threatening, but you get a bit nervous when there’s more and more.
Blake said the people he confronted initially claimed innocence. However, Blake produced the delivery confirmation photograph, which showed the parcel having been delivered to the address.
‘After about 15 minutes, they admitted they take items at the door and put them on top of a fridge in the restaurant, and then someone else comes to collect them,’ he said.
When Blake’s mum called Essex Police, staff at the restaurant told them that someone from their group was on his way.
‘This guy came out from the back and he came over to us and he was just really nervous, like properly shaking, sweating,’ Blake added.
After a conversation with the pair, the man went back inside and returned with Blake’s laptop.
Blake said the man insisted he had nothing to do with the fake email. He showed the teenager messages on his phone, which Blake believes suggested parcels received at the address were later shipped to Nigeria.
After an hour and a half, Blake and his mum drove home with the laptop in hand.
‘We were not expecting it. At most I thought we’d get proof it was there,’ Blake said.
After recovering the computer, Blake’s mum contacted Essex Police again and completed an online crime report.
The pair also made an audio recording of the meeting. Officers said they would visit to take a statement and collect the recording, but Blake and his family have not heard anything since.
An eBay spokesperson told KentOnline the buyer’s account has since been suspended.
They said: ‘We’d like to apologise for the experience your reader had on eBay, and can confirm that the buyer’s account has been suspended.
‘We encourage our users to only communicate with other users through eBay messages, and to only ship items once payment has been received. If users are unsure whether an email from eBay is genuine they can also check their eBay messages, as all emails from eBay are also sent as messages.’
Kent and Essex Police have been contacted for comment.