Ou tricked into paying R10k for no car parts
A Brackenfell ou looking to get spare parts for his dream car says his search led to nightmares after he lost more than R10 000 to an online scamster.
Wesley Stevens says he chatted with Tim Hodge via Facebook Messenger in July for parts to rebuild a 1994 Jaguar XJ, but the skelm salesman left him with an empty bank account and no parts.
“I saw a post on Facebook where Tim advertised that he was selling parts that I could use. He was based out of Cape Town and he said that the delivery would be part of the costs,” Wesley explains.
“After we spoke (via Messenger), I sent him R10 800 for about five parts that I needed to rebuild the car.
“It was a project that I was working on for the last six years and I was hoping Tim could help because his advert said he specialised in cars from that era.
“Once payment was made though, the messages became less until he completely disappeared at the start of August.”
He says they only spoke on Messenger and he has no contact number or address for Hodge.
Stevens says after Hodge started ghosting him, he found more mense who were taken for a rytjie by the so-called salesman.
“There were posts from two other people saying they made contact with Tim only for him to disappear after they made payment,” he says.
After realising he fell for a scam, Wesley says he was forced to sell his dream car.
“A few weeks ago, I eventually sold my car off as parts just to make back some of the money but I am still short of about R3 000.”
The Daily Voice tried to contact Hodge via Facebook Messenger but all the messages are unread and he did not respond.
junior.bester@inl.co.za