MERCEDES – A Mercedes family is out hundreds of dollars and still doesn’t have a car to show for it.

They said they attempted to purchase a vehicle from Craigslist from a user named “Ebay.”

“The worst part is my grandson didn’t get what he was expecting. I mean money is money, and sure it’s a thousand dollars, but him not getting his truck was the worst part of it all,” Maria Mendoza said.

She said her grandson saved $1,000 for a $1,500 truck. They found it on Craigslist. They emailed the seller and the conversation started.

“She gave me a long story of how she wanted to get rid of it quickly because she was going to be going out of the country for about a year with her military medical team,” Mendoza said.

They thought it was a good deal.

“Then she said that Ebay will be the one taking care of all the transactions,” she said.

The seller got her name, address and phone number and said Ebay would get in touch with her. She received a letter that showed Ebay on the letterhead.

“They sent him this form… which gives the order number for the truck and they advised me on how to make payments, which was going to be three Ebay cards, $500 each,” she said.

Mendoza bought $1,500 worth of legitimate Ebay gift cards at a drugstore. She called the customer service number on the letter she received. The person on the other end of the line instructed her to provide the code numbers on the back of the cards. She did.

“I didn’t have a problem. The call went through right away, and they said ‘Okay, everything’s processed. The payments processed so you should receive the truck three business days.’ Which would have been Monday,” she said.

The truck never arrived.

CHANNEL 5 NEWS called the same customer service number on the letter Mendoza called. We didn’t get in contact with anyone.

Mendoza made one more call. This time she got the number of the real Ebay customer service.

“We got a hold of another Ebay number, which as customer service, and didn’t have any record of anything being sold through them,” she said.

Mendoza said the thieves are still at work.

Mendoza first got the advertisement for the truck on Craigslist in the city of McAllen, and then she looked on Craigslist again and saw it was in Mission.

We looked at the same picture from the first advertisement and it was in Brownsville.

The family said it’s a costly lesson learned and they want others to beware.

Mendoza said the real Ebay put a freeze on one of the cards and they are investigating her case.