Facebook scam busted

A Nelson woman used fake Facebook profiles to scam buyers out of $6000 worth of goods.

Jade Ransom-Hall, 26, pleaded guilty to eight charges of obtaining by deception in the Nelson District Court on Monday.

Over a two-month period, RansomHall tricked eight people into buying products she never delivered on. She created a series of fake Facebook accounts using aliases such as ‘‘Dan Newman’’ and ‘‘Ryan Goodell’’, along with fake email addresses.

Ransom-Hall advertised a variety of products on Facebook buy and sell

pages, pulling images from Ebay and reusing them to advertise her own products.

Buyers were contacted through Facebook Messenger and by cellphone, with money being deposited directly into Ransom-Hall’s account.

The offending began on July 1, with Ransom-Hall selling a $400 rangefinder on the ‘‘Anything Hunting NZ’’ Facebook page, under the Dan Newman alias.

After the rangefinder was purchased, Ransom-Hall cut contact with the victim after they questioned when the item would be sent to them.

Over the next two months, RansomHall sold more than a dozen GPStracker dog collars, a Samsung Galaxy cellphone, and a Playstation 4, using a series of different aliases. The final item

was a thermal vision telescope, sold on August 27 for $1300.

Ransom-Hall said the reason for her offending was because she was ‘‘short of funds to meet day-to-day expenses’’.

Defence lawyer Kelly Hennessy said Ransom-Hall had been in a ‘‘bad space’’ at the time, both financially and emotionally.

Hennessy said Ransom-Hall was capable of paying $20 per week towards any reparations.

Judge Tony Zohrab gave RansomHall credit for her early guilty plea and lack of previous criminal history.

Zohrab ordered Ransom-Hall to pay $5945 in reparations and sentenced her to 100 hours’ community work, with a provision for her to be called up for sentencing again if she reoffended within the next 12 months.