520 iphone turned out to be a bag of flour

Gardai in Birr are urging people to be careful when buying from online ads after an unfortunate shopper was conned into paying €520 for a bag of flour last week.

The individual in question had arranged to meet the seller in a public place after seeing an online ad for an iphone.

A deal was struck and money was handed over but the buyer got a nasty surprise when the packaging contained nothing but a bag of flour.

Gardai in Birr cautioned against meeting people in carparks and other public locations as tracing the seller can prove difficult.

A garda spokesman explained there was “an incident in the Birr area last week which an iphone was bought for €520.” The buyer later discovered “a bag of flour” in the iphone packaging.

Information and advice on buying items online can be found at www.garda.ie.