Retiree warns bargain hunters to stay alert this festive season after losing $50,000 to online shopping scam

A devastated southern suburbs retiree is warning other bargain hunters to stay alert this festive season after losing $50,000 to an elusive online shopping scam. Alida Peacock spent hours trawling through Google and Gumtree last month looking to buy her family’s dream motor-home for a once-in-a-lifetime trip around Australia. A quick Google search spat out a supposed Melbourne-based business selling new and pre-owned motorhomes. The 79-year-old said the website — which cannot be named for legal reasons — looked entirely legitimate, and even asked her son to get in touch with the business. “It didn’t look dodgy at all,” Ms Peacock told The Sunday Times. “(My son) gave the company a ring ... and there was this guy on the phone who said, ‘yeah, yeah (the motor-homes) are all available, which one do you want, which one do you like?’” Satisfied with the company, Ms Peacock went ahead and purchased a 2018 KEA River motor-home and made three large payments — $20,000, $20,000 and $10,700 — via bank transfer. She said she was provided a tracking number and was told the motorhome would be trucked over from Dubbo, in NSW, in the following days. But she said she began to “smell a rat” after being told the courier truck had broken down. Frustrated, Ms Peacock called the business, which assured her they were experiencing delays, and that the motorhome was en route to her home. It never arrived. “When it didn’t arrive, I rang him ... he came back to me with an email to say, ‘(the truck) was broken, it will come,’” she said. “We reported it everywhere . . . but the money was gone. “All the paperwork was there; it’s a very good scam. It’s not just a couple of dollars, $50,000 is a lot of money.” Ms Peacock said she was heartbroken and urged other online shoppers to stay vigilant. “I’m devastated because that’s all the money we had left to buy a motorhome, and we can’t go anywhere now,” she said. “If we can shut them down, at least nobody else will get caught” The Meadow Springs woman is just one of many to fall victim to online scams, with fresh figures from the Department of Local Government, Industry Regulation and Safety revealing West Australians had lost nearly $466,000 to shopping scams this year alone. Of the $466,000, $294,167 was swindled through online marketplaces, with a further $165,791 stolen through online shopping scams. Up to $6000 was also lost in fake parcel deliveries. Bankwest customer trust and security head Phillipa Costanzo said online shopping scams were becoming more sophisticated, making them harder to detect. “We know that they’re increasingly using fake websites and ads, and the fake sites can replicate genuine sites very, very well,” she told The Sunday Times. “It’s often through links through SMS or social media, promoting heavily discounted items, creating a sense of urgency through limited-time offers or limited stock. “We’ve seen scammers go as far as (using) countdown timers to really put pressure on shoppers to click ... so we really encourage people to go back through a genuine URL and search it for yourself rather than using a link.” It comes as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission this month revealed Aussies had reportedly lost up to $260 million scams in the first nine months of 2025 — a staggering 16 per cent increase from 2024. ACCC deputy chair Catriona Lowe said scammers often targeted Black Friday sales because they knew shoppers were under pressure to find the best deal. “We remind consumers to take their time, check the legitimacy of websites and its offers, and be cautious about sharing personal or financial information online,” she said.