Poor Paul Barrington thought he had found the deal of the century, but was left sorely disappointed when his delivery arrived.

As you grow older, you start to realize that there is a lot of wisdom in those old sayings that elderly relatives used to take great pleasure in muttering when they heard of your latest youthful misadventure. Perhaps Mr. Barrington never paid much heed to his elders, or he is still willfully ignoring their advice, but it seems impossible that he could have reached the grand old age of 38 without having heard the old adage: “If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.”

eBay Scam: A new career

Mr. Barrington logged on to eBay with the aim of buying himself a new laptop with which he planned to embark on a new career as a wedding DJ. In order to fund his purchase, he flogged his beloved surf board, and was ecstatic when it appeared that he had found himself a MacBook for $450, according to Chris Matyszczyk of CNET.com.

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Now, even a cursory glance at MacBooks for sale on eBay would inform you that the highly-prized machines rarely, if ever, sell for such a bargain basement price. Undeterred, Mr. Barrington took the plunge and eagerly awaited his parcel.

Although he did receive an item in the post, it wasn’t exactly what he had in mind. His suspicions were presumably raised when the box could barely have contained an iPod, let alone a MacBook. In fact, there was a MacBook in there, but only in the form of a photo.

Apple MacBook: A cruel trick

As if to rub salt in the wound, the eBay fraudster didn’t even splash out on color printing, leaving Mr. Barrington to contemplate possibly the most expensive black and white printout known to man. Luckily he’s a good sport: “Why bother sending a picture in a box? It doesn’t make any sense. I almost had to laugh,” he said.

Fortunately for him he will receive a refund thanks to eBay’s Money Back Guarantee, and hopefully that ancient piece of wisdom will ring in his ears the next time he thinks he has found a bargain.