Speaking to CNN, Rod’s daughter Ansley Ashby said, “He was really just trying to find a truck that didn’t break the bank with everything else going on that he could get fairly quickly.”
Rod then found a website claiming to be a car dealer in Colorado with repossessed cars for sale well below the going rate.
On the website was a four-year-old Ford F-350 that Rod wanted to buy. Rod spoke to who he thought was a seller associated with the dealer over the phone several times, and Rod also sent emails back and forth with this person.
After getting a bill of sale and a contract from the supposed seller, Rod wired close to $40,000 to the bank account of the seller.
Nowhere along the way did this come across like a shady or scummy process: it all checked out and was seemingly legitimate, according to Ansley. Also, this dealer does exist.
But 36 hours after Rod made the payment and his truck was still on the website as available to buy, Ansley called up the seller and acted like she was someone new interested in buying the same truck Rod had already purchased.
It was then that Ansley came to the heart-stopping conclusion that her dad had been scammed out of all that money. After some more digging on the internet, Ansley could clearly prove that the seller was pretending to be affiliated with this real dealership from Colorado.
While Rod’s bank and the seller’s bank were both made aware of the fraud, so far, nothing has been done to get Rod’s money back.
Not only is this family still dealing with searching for Kim, who remains missing, but now they have to try to fight to get that $40,000 back.
“It’s just another gut punch,” Ansley told CNN. “You just feel so helpless.”
You can view the GoFundMe for Rod and Kim here.
