A mum made a lengthy 160-mile journey with her new baby boy and her disabled mum for their first holiday together only to arrive and realise she had been the victim of a scam.
Amber Kmiotek had organised for herself and her family to stay at a private caravan park, Skegness, for one week and paid a €118 deposit ahead of their arrival.
The accommodation was for her 54-year-old mum Adele Green who has Parkinson's, her carer and his three children, as well as Amber and five-month-old Riley.
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The woman she booked with - Aimee - had said she would meet them at the site on August 1 to hand over the keys, at which point Amber could pay the remaining €236 charge.
Amiee texted saying she was on her way but never showed up and Amber soon found out that the caravan she'd booked was occupied by other people.
After waiting for over two hours, 21-year-old Amber, who lives in the UK said they had to turn back and go home, and said she felt "absolutely gutted" that her son's first holiday was ruined.
The woman who owns the phone that Amber received messages from denied she was called Amiee or that she had scammed the family.
She said she'd been impersonated by someone using her number and her partner's bank details and had contacted the police about the matter - though was unable to provide any crime reference number.
Skegness Sands, meanwhile, said Amber had called before the trip to check if Aimee was legitimate and they had said that as they were a non-rental site, it was probably a scam and questioned why she had "packed up her whole family" knowing this.
Speaking about the experience, Amber said: "It was my son's first holiday, we were right excited for this holiday. "We realised after about half an hour, we thought it was shady, we sent over 100 calls and messages and she was reading all of them and going offline.
"It's beyond a joke, we paid €118 for travel."
Amber said she was looking for caravans to rent in Skegness on various Facebook groups. "I haven't done it before but I have friends who rent out caravans so I thought it would be safe," she explained.
"Amiee private messaged me saying she had a caravan so I asked for details, photos, location, everything. She actually Facetimed me and my mum and showed us a caravan she was doing up at the time. She was in a caravan [when she called].
"She was texting me nearly every other day and was ringing me every so often to make sure we were coming and saying 'I bet you're looking forward to it.' We told her we'd pay €236 on the day.
“She kept asking us when we paid it and we said on the day so we knew she wouldn't rip us off and she said that was fine."
She said she did call Skegness Sands and they said they didn't know an Amiee and warned her it was probably her scam. However, the mum-of-one decided to go anyway as she assumed the site reception wouldn't know every owner by name and Amiee was too convincing.
The owner of the phone agreed that it was her in the pictures on the social media account the scammer had contacted Amber with but the woman said she'd never even heard of Skegness, has never Facetimed Amber, and said she doesn't have a bank account.
She said: "I've gone to the police myself, it's not me, someone has used my number, they're impersonating me. I've never video-called the girl in my life.
A Skegness Sands spokesman said: "We would just like to make it quite clear that Skegness Sands is in no way connected to the supposed owner that took Amber’s deposit.
“We received a phone call on May 24 to the office from a mother and daughter asking if we were a rental site as the lady said she had paid a deposit to an Amiee [redacted] for a caravan and was checking they were legitimate – we told them that we are a non-rental site and just for private owners only so there was a very high likelihood that is wasn’t legitimate.
"I’m not taking away the fact Amber has lost €118 but she was told back in May we were a non-rental site and she had her doubts then to ring us up.
"We did not give her any reason to think that her dealings with Amiee were legitimate so why she packed her whole family up and made the journey needs to be questioned."
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