Police have arrested an alleged serial eBay scammer after a Romford resident who was conned tried to track him down herself.
Lorraine Moss, 46, of Carlisle Road, Romford, thought the eBay seller would never be brought to justice until last week when she received a letter from Bristol CID to say the suspect had been caught.
In 2004 Mrs Moss spent around £200 on a state-of-the-art mobile phone that never turned up and after a 10-day wait with no response from the seller she travelled to his Bristol home to recover the present for her partner.
The journey was to cost more than the phone itself but Mrs Moss and partner Richard Byrne, 51, did it on “principle” after seeing eBay feedback from scores of others who were in the same predicament.
“When we got there the person was no longer there but it looked like somebody had ripped off his post box. There was a number of letters there that looked like they contained cheques,” said Mrs Moss.
“We opened them up, found at least two cheques from eBay buyers and we sent their cheques back to them. We stopped a couple of people being victims.”
Mrs Moss also emailed everyone else who had left the seller negative feedback urging them to take the matter up with the police.
“I was impressed all the years later they caught up with the person,” she said.
“It’s not only that we lost our money but the anger you feel being ripped off.”
Mrs Moss is now waiting to hear from the police if she will have to give evidence in court.
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