MESA, AZ (CBS5) -
They say if it's too good to be true, it probably is. A Valley woman says she saw all the warning signs of a scam but she fell for it anyway.
Tarah Bieber and her boyfriend were in a Mesa Walmart parking lot the day after Christmas when a fast-talking charmer approached them.
"'Hey you want to buy a home audio system?' I look at him, 'You know I'm good, I don't need one.' 'No it's a really good surround sound system, you should at least look at it.'" Bieber said as she recalled the conversation the two had.
She was suspicious but looked at what he was selling. He had boxes of Nexis audio home theater systems in his vehicle. The mystery man said it was $1,800, but of course he'd cut her a deal.
"'Let me help you out. I'll sell it to you for 170 bucks; you turn around and put it on Craigslist for 500 bucks. Merry Christmas,'" she says he told her.
Bieber bought it and got the man's business card which read Chris Tedesco with Custom Audio in Scottsdale. But when she looked up the name later, tons of links showed up saying it's a scam. She hadn't even opened the box.
"He was talking about his own company, and his wife and how she had cancer, and how he's taking care of his kids," Bieber said.
We asked her to give us a look at the contents inside the box. The audio system is like a prop: connectors that wouldn't hold a wire, audio jacks that won't take a plug and a tangled mess of wire that doesn't even look legit.
"I should have listened to my boyfriend who said 'No,' but I said 'baby it's such a good deal!'" said Bieber.
She called the seller several times, but he never answers.
"I never thought I'd be a sucker, and I was a sucker absolutely," said Bieber.
She hopes people do their shopping in the store, and not in the parking lot.
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