[StBernard] Charity Mission Complicated By Con Artist

[Westley Annis]

Charity Mission Complicated By Con Artist
TheNewOrleansChannel.com
NEW ORLEANS - Before they could salvage reusable wood in New Orleans' Ninth
Ward, graduate students from the University of Washington had to salvage
their trip: They'd been scammed on eBay. The students purchased a
Continental Airlines gift certificate through the popular online auction
site, but it had been paid for by a scam artist with a bad credit card --
making their plane tickets worthless. 

"We found out they had no value when we got on the plane, or we tried to get
on the plane," Jon Agnone said. 

The five students were left with a choice: pay for the tickets a second
time, or abandon the idea of spending their spring break gutting and
restoring houses far from Seattle. 

"You know, a few of us thought about that, we sure did, but then we decided
we were really resolute about doing this," Agnone said. 

The $1,800 he used to repurchase the tickets was going to be used as a
donation to Common Ground. 

Continental said that although it might not be able to donate the money to
Common Ground, it gave the UW students a break on the tickets, saving them
hundreds of dollars. 

"The company's policies are as they are, and there's only so much we can
do," UW student Irina Voloshin said. "We see that we are actually doing
something instead of just sitting around lamenting the situation, so, yes,
it's worth it despite the extra expense."