Andrew Thompson, parts sales manager at Mack Volvo in Albury, narrowly avoided being fleeced of $650 in “freight costs” after he went online at TruckHub.com.au — a carsales.com.au site — to sell truck parts.

He said he knew of at least one other person on the Border who had fallen victim to the scam, to the tune of $2500, within the past two weeks and has heard of a third case.

“One of the women I know drew the money on her credit card, so she’s paying interest daily,” he said.

Mr Thompson went online to sell truck parts worth $3000 and received a response from a buyer, who claimed to be an offshore ocean- ographer, within 24 hours.

“They emailed me straight away saying they wanted to buy the truck off me for $3000,” Mr Thompson said.

“I sent back a confirmation saying ‘do you realise you’re buying truck parts, not a truck?” He said, ‘oh yes, I’m buying the parts for my dad who is restoring a truck’.

“But he didn’t seem very interested in the goods, which struck me as odd.”

The man, who called himself David Gomez, and actually phoned Mr Thompson several times, then advised Mr Thompson to deposit $650 in a money transfer through a US-based financial services and communications company and said he would reimburse him by paying $3650 in Mr Thompson’s PayPal account.

The PayPal money would become available once Mr Thompson produced a transfer receipt number.

Mr Thompson received an email from PayPal, since shown to be a fraud, confirming the arrangement.

Smelling a rat, he contacted PayPal who confirmed there was no money pending in his account and said PayPal knew of the scam.

“I just think people should be warned because no one can afford to lose that sort of money at the moment,” Mr Thompson said.

Carsales.com chief executive Greg Roebuck said Mr Thompson was right to question the transfer as third party transfers “were a scammer’s favourite means to obtain money”.

He said the site went to lengths to ensure traders weren’t ripped off.

“Our ‘sell your item’ pages always try to have a prominent ‘play it safer online’ section with lots of tips and suggestions to protect yourself,” he said.

“Make sure you know who you are dealing with.”