Redondo Beach mother hoping to pay for her son's tuition swindled out of $10,000
Hoping to pay for her son's tuition, Redondo Beach mother Marry Wassink posted her necklace containing 191 diamonds on Facebook Marketplace.
"Diamonds are apparently not being bought by jewelers and a pawn shop offered me $2000," she said. "This was just recently appraised for over $11,000 so I thought I'd put it on Facebook Marketplace attempting to get more of the value of what it was."
While she was excited when she finally found a buyer willing to pay $10,750 for the piece of jewelry she bought 20 years ago, she made sure to remain cautious.
"We set up a meet, at my bank as I wanted to make sure the money was real, not counterfeit and the correct amount," she said.
Wassink said she'd used the website to sell goods in the past and thought she was doing everything right.
After confirming that the amount was correct, Wassink let the buyer inspect the necklace. Satisfied, the buyer handed over the envelope supposedly filled with $10,750 and walked out of the bank.
"A minute later, if that, I opened up the envelope and it was all ones," she said. "The $10,750 was gone and it was replaced with 100 ones and a one $100 bill.
Wassink believes that the buyer swapped the envelope while inspecting the necklace.
"First I felt like, 'Oh my gosh, am I that stupid?'" she said.
However, when she went back to the website to tell her story she found out she wasn't alone when Las Vegas resident Brian Daniele said something similar happened to him too.
Daniele said that the same man scammed him out of a Rolex watch that he was selling on Facebook Marketplace for $19,500. The Vegas man wanted to sell his watch to buy an engagement ring for his girlfriend.
"100 percent, same Facebook profile, same phone number, same description," he said.
However, when Daniele walked back to his car and opened the envelope the buyer gave him he realized he was tricked.
"We walked together through the casino floor straight through the cage he pulled out an envelope and they counted it," he said. "He hands me the envelope and said put it in your pocket. I saw the money counter. I didn't think to take it out of the envelope."
After connecting with Wassink, Daniele learned that the same type of con happened to 13 other people.
Daniele reported the incident to the Bellagio Hotel and Vegas police, while Wassink spoke with the Redondo Beach Police Department, who said they were investigating it as grand theft.
Redondo Beach police advised people to use their predesignated area, which is always under surveillance, for transactions similar to Wassink's. They also recommended hopeful buyers and sellers bring a friend for a second set of eyes.
