South Africa man charged over Welsh eBay scam
Published October 6th, 2006
A man has been charged with fraud in South Africa after detective work by a mid Wales woman over an eBay sale.
South African police say Lucy Attala, 45, from Lampeter, was a victim of an alleged scam after selling her son’s games console on auction site eBay.
After apparently receiving an invoice for £135 and posting the console off, Mrs Attala claims she was not paid.
Her aunt who lives in Johannesburg, where it had been sent, called police who arrested a man.
Mrs Attala said she had sold the console on eBay for her son Llyr, but ended up being an alleged victim of a scam called “phishing” or spoof e-mails.
After selling the item, an invoice was e-mailed to Mrs Attala apparently from eBay’s payment provider Paypal.
However, although appearing genuine, the e-mailed invoice turned out to be fake.
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