Generous act of kindness following car scam
[August 13, 2021: Rochelle Alleyne]
In July 2021, a Lehigh Acres mom's family was scammed out of 25-hundred bucks while trying to buy a car on Facebook Marketplace.
The woman, whose first language is Spanish, spoke to us through a translator.
"They met them and then they said, 'We need to drop it off at your house,'" said the translator, "When they got here, they said 'We don't have the title.' and they were going to come back at 1 o'clock the next day, which they never did. But they did take the money."
That mom says the scammers blocked them on social media shortly after that exchange.
The car was repossessed by its rightful owner and the real titleholder, Denny's Auto Sales in Fort Myers.
"I just think it was the wrong thing for these people to do that to these people. Just hoping that somebody will do something about these types of scams on Facebook and Craigslist. It needs to stop," said dealership owner Dennis Hampton.
It's an ending that just didn't sit right with Hampton.
"We did contact the customer and tell them that we would honor the $2500 that they had lost to these people that had scammed them out of their money," he said.
Yes, you heard him right.
He gave them the car back, but not before repairing the damage the previous owner caused.
"They were ecstatic the guy just couldn't believe that they would do that for him," he said.
It's a series of events that have cost Hampton some serious money, but to him, it's worth it.
"You gotta give back sometimes," he said.
And as far as the previous owners are concerned, he's now calling on the Lee County Sheriff's Office to get involved.
"Hopefully these people the police will do something about it and maybe other people will see that you cannot get away with scamming people out of their money," he said.
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