More than £8,000 raised for 14-year-old tractor scam victim

An online fundraising campaign to support a teenage boy who lost £8,400 in an eBay tractor scam is now less than £400 from its goal.

Farmer’s son Harvey Waters, 14, was devastated when scammers stole his life savings when he tried to buy a second-hand John Deere 6400 tractor advertised on eBay.

But a fundraising page set up by his mum, Rachel, has raised £8,185 of the £8,400 goal.

See also: Tips for avoiding scams when buying used farm machinery online

Mrs Waters said the family was overwhelmed by the public support and extremely grateful.

“Thank you so much to everyone who has donated. Harvey is really pleased.

“There have been some negative comments but we have just ignored them,” said Mrs Waters.

“We did not expect this response. I have written more than 350 thank you notes for each person who has donated.

“We had a gentleman who was down here on holiday asking to put money through our letterbox.”

Mr Waters runs his own vegetable box business and does odd jobs for people when he isn’t studying at Helston Community College in Cornwall, where his family farm.

Seb Blake

Essex arable farmer Seb Blake lost £8,500 after he fell victim to a fake advert for a Case tractor on eBay.

But Mr Blake got his money back after Farmers Weekly covered the story.

Ebay removed the fake tractor advert from its website on Friday 9 April.