Toco woman tricked out of $6,000 in Facebook scam

A Toco woman was allegedly tricked out of $6,000 after she responded to a Facebook advertisement for a ‘rent-to-own’ vehicle.

The 49-year-old labourer saw the advertisement for a Nissan Wingroad in which a woman asked for a $6,000 downpayment and 20 monthly instalments of $2,000 for the car.

She contacted the woman on August 30, and arranged to pay the $6,000.

Around 1.15 pm near Republic Bank, Centre City Mall, Chaguanas, she met with a man, dressed in two different coloured slippers, who said he was the son of the woman who owns the car.

She paid him $6,000, collected a receipt, and arranged to collect the car on August 31.

However, calls to the numbers of the woman and her alleged son on the day went unanswered and she never received the car.

Meanwhile, two Maracas, St Joseph men were robbed by gunmen on September 1, after they responded to a car-for-sale advertisement on Facebook marketplace.

The victims, aged 20 and 22, told officers at the Morvant police station they went to Redhill Extension, Morvant in a Nissan B15, around 7 pm, to purchase a car they saw on Facebook Market Place.

They parked on the road and was waiting on the person they spoke with via cell phone when they were approached by three suspects armed with guns.

The suspects announced a robbery and stole an Apple iPhone X worth $2,000, a Samsung A14 cell phone valued at $1,500, bank cards and $1,000 cash from the men.

The suspects then escaped by running away through a nearby track.