A man who was scammed out of £13,000 for a faulty campervan on Facebook has a message for the “vile human” who has “left his future uncertain”.
Stef Green, 62, and his wife Carla, 55, decided to purchase the home-on-wheels last autumn, intending to move out of their rented house in Aberdeen and reside permanently in the motorhome, partly in an attempt to save money but also to “try something different” later in life.
However, after seemingly finding the perfect new home on Facebook, the couple were “heartbroken” to discover they had instead fallen victim to a scam, with the home-on-wheels’ condition being “not fit for purpose”.
In January, the 62-year-old paid a £500 deposit after seeing the vehicle via a video call, believing it checked all the boxes. He then headed down to Leeds to pick up the vehicle but something was amiss from the get-go. After the seller arrived at the train station later than planned, the first thing he mentioned was that his stepfather had just had a heart attack and he needed to quickly get to the hospital.
Man scammed out of £13,000 on faulty campervan’s message to crooks: ‘I hope they enjoy their money. Because it certainly wasn't deserved’Stef Green He told GB News: “It was pressurising of course for him to say ‘Oh let's get the deal done. I have to get to the hospital. My wife’s waiting in the car so we need to go’. So that probably didn't help.”
In a decision he still cannot explain to this day, Stef decided to send over the money in the autumn without even having seen the inside of the campervan in person.
Recollecting on the purchase, he said: “I cast myself as quite an intelligent guy. Not the most intelligent in the world, but certainly not stupid. But I did an exceptionally stupid thing. It's one of those things you think ‘It would never happen to me. I'd never fall for it.’ And then, I did.
“I think it's definitely 100 per cent more about their ability to sway you and put pressure rather than any sort of comment on your intelligence. It's not so much your gullibility. It's where your morality lies. I would never dream of doing that to anybody so it’s shocking when you encounter someone who does.”
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The interior was covered in black mold and had no working electricity
Stef Green
He drove the vehicle back to Scotland where he and his wife pondered their options. They decided that redoing the interior, which was covered in “black mould” and without any working electricity or heating, would be too expensive and leave them in even more debt.
They therefore worked endlessly to find a campervan company that would be willing to buy the vehicle off of them - they eventually did, who snapped it up at a “heartbreaking” price of £6,500, half of the original cost.
“It was better than nothing. But it left us in a position where we actually had more debt than what we could afford. And the whole point of the exercise was to reduce the debt so we could have an affordable level of income. And now that has increased and left us with nothing at all,” he said.
Stef claims that the seller is still active on various sites, including eBay, and he has taken steps to report him. But without proof, “they just don’t seem to care”.
After seemingly finding the perfect new home on Facebook, the couple were “heartbroken” to discover they had instead fallen victim to a scam
PAOut £6,500 and facing the looming possibility of eviction, Stef has a simple message for his scammer: “I hope they enjoy their money. Because it certainly wasn't deserved.”
The 62-year-old said he would not waste another breath on the crook who conned him: “They're not really deserving of my time or anybody else's.”
Carla said that her husband blames himself for the purchase but she condemns the “vile human” who robbed them.
“All of this has had a major effect on us, but Stef in particular is devastated by it. He blames himself heavily but I have told him it is not his fault.
“Our future looks really uncertain, the motorhome was our only way out of a bad situation. Good job we have a tent because we might need it.
“Stef is the most trusted and trusting man I know. The scammer is a vile human who takes from people who can not afford to be let down. He has affected our life drastically.”
