Enyaeva Michelin, 17, has been saving her hard-earned money for three years to surprise her parents with the ultimate Christmas gift: a car, to help the Evanston family of five get around. But those plans were quashed after thieves lured the Evanston high school student into an elaborate new gift card scam, walking off with her cash.

"I saw an ad for the perfect car I was like this is awesome. I can use this for my family," Michelin said. "So I was like this is perfect. The price was great."

An attractive price tag at $1,200, was accompanied by one more thing that sucked her in.

"So she was saying that her husband had passed and she was in need of money quickly because she just wanted to sell the car and it brings back bad memories," Michelin recalled.

That “grieving widow” then sent Michelin an invoice for the car from “eBay Motors.”

"And I looked up eBay Motors,” Michelin said. “It’s a real company. It’s legit. Like they sell car parts and everything."

Michelin says “customer service” instructed her to buy $1,200 worth of eBay gift cards to pay for the car – which she did – by reading the numbers aloud over the phone.

"Which at the time I was like sure of course. eBay, eBay cards, eBay motors. It all makes sense," Michelin said.

What didn’t make sense? Michelin didn’t hear a word from “eBay Motors” until she reached out to ask for an update. And that is when her heart sank.

"We’re going to need basically going to need another $1,000 to cover cargo issues," Michelin was told. "All I can describe is I felt sick and I just kind of started crying."

As it turns out, her instincts were right. After NBC 5 Responds asked eBay to look in to Michelin’s case, the company described it as full of “major red flags” and confirmed Michelin was the victim of an elaborate scam using gift cards as payment.

A problem so widespread, eBay also shared this warning to consumers in their statement to NBC 5 Responds:

This incident was a scam as it did not take place on eBay Motors. Unfortunately, scam artists will list vehicles for sale on fake landing pages, Craigslist or other non-eBay trading sites, and promise eBay’s protection as a means of completing the scam. Criminals often exploit well-known, trusted brand names like eBay to attract consumers and then lure them onto fake websites and into fraudulent transactions. We always encourage all our shoppers to be cautious when they aren’t purchasing a vehicle directly through the eBay website. We provide tips for safe car shopping and warning signs to look out for scams on the eBay Motors Security Center page.