Local Woman Loses $15,000 Trying to Buy a Car Online

A 66-year-old woman called police recently after she realized that she'd been scammed for $15,000 while trying to buy a car off the Internet.

The woman said that in early November, she found a vehicle she wanted to buy on cars.com. She contacted the seller who told her to wire $15,000 to a Bank of America branch in Boston, Mass. Although the woman received an e-mail indicating she should use PayPal for the transaction, she didn't, according to the report.

She wired the money on Nov. 9 and has not heard from the seller since, said last week. The woman had a phone number for the seller but wasn't able to reach her. She gave investigators that number, as well as the e-mail address she'd been sending information to.

Police contacted the previous owner of the car who told them that it had been repossessed in September and he hadn't seen it since. He said he tried selling the vehicle on eBay but it was seized before he could. 

Employees from the car dealership wouldn't give police information as to whether the car was still in their possession. tracked the fraud case all the way to a P.O. Box in Boston, Mass. 

Although staff at the UPS store where the box was located couldn't give police the owner's personal information over the phone, they did say they've received several similar complaints about fraudulent activities in connection with it.

Police eventually learned that the P.O. Box was opened with a fictitious identification and the money that gets wired to the Bank of America then gets transferred to an overseas account. A Boston detective is working on several similar cases in the Massachusetts area, the report said.

The local victim told police she wants to sign complaints. The case remained under investigation Friday. 

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