SANFORD, N.C. (WTVD) — It’s a financial setback for Hurricane Helene victim Rod Ashby. While he was still desperately searching for his wife, Kim, a scam took nearly $40,000 from him.

ABC11 first reported it It’s about Rod and Kim Ashby, a Sanford couple who were at their mountain home in Western North Carolina when Helene was shot. Ashby’s home in Elk Park, near Banner Elk, was swept away by floodwaters that included them.

The couple was holding on to each other until they crashed into a tree and were separated. Rod reached safety; hasn’t seen Kim since.

Days after Helene, Rod and crews searched for Kim, but more than a month after Helene was shot, the search continues.

“We just want closure. I mean, no one wants to leave their loved ones on the mountainside,” said Ansley Ashby, Rod’s daughter.

To achieve this conclusion, Rod wants to continue searching for Kim. He lost his truck in Helene when it was destroyed by heavy mud and water.

He is currently staying with his family in Pittsboro and is looking to purchase a new truck to continue searching for Kim in the mountains.

“All he wants is to get back out there and be able to get resources to people doing search and rescue and help out as much as he can, but it’s really hard to get on the roads without four-wheel drive.” We don’t have another vehicle, so he was trying to get a truck back so he could leave,” Ansley added.

In his search for a new truck, Rod found a 2020 Ford F-350 for $38,900 on a website that claimed to be an auto business in Colorado that sold only impounded cars.

It was a deal Ansley said he was skeptical about. Still, she spoke to the seller on the phone, received emails about the deal, signed a contract, and even received a bill of sale.

“Everything checked. Email matched, phone numbers matched, everything looked legit,” he said.

Rod wired the money and received confirmation that the truck would be shipped within a few days.

“Hopefully he was supposed to have the truck delivered by the 30th and could be back in the mountains by now and that’s when things started going wrong,” Ansley said. he added.

This was extremely wrong when they realized the truck was still listed for sale on the website and quickly learned the deal was a scam. In reality, the website was a knockoff site for a real car business.

SEE ALSO | ‘Scammers are everywhere,’ NC Insurance Commissioner warns after devastation left by Helene

The Ashbys contacted the banks involved and filed a fraud report and attempted to stop the wire transfer, but were told it could take up to 90 days to respond, which Ansley said was too long to wait.

“Imagine your wife, your son, anyone like you, wanting to be there, wanting to search, wanting to find them, just like everybody else does. So I think it was like another punch in the gut. Ansley said, “Okay, okay, now that’s gone wrong and “Now this has set me back even further,” he said.

Rod filed a police report and said officers were investigating.

Troubleshooter Diane Wilson He spoke with the owner of the legitimate Colorado car dealership the scammer was impersonating. He said he has been receiving numerous calls every day for the past few months from people who thought they were buying a car from him, but instead it was a scammer. He said the scammer underprices the vehicles to lure people in and make them lower their guard. He also said he was cooperating with law enforcement.

Wilson also tried to reach the scammer, but the website is no longer working, an email sent to the company could not be delivered and phone numbers are ringing busy.

SEE ALSO | Need for donations and volunteers remains strong two weeks after Helene

Wilson also reached out to two banks participating in the wire transfer. Someone replied with the following statement:

“We attach great importance to the privacy and security of our member’s financial information. As a result, we can only disclose information regarding account-specific questions and procedures to the member.”

The best advice when buying a car online is to never be too careful. It is very easy for a scammer to make it look legitimate by copying a sales listing and a website.