The electric foil board that never came

Jordan James thought he was getting an electric foil board in the mail.

The Auckland media specialist had been scrolling Instagram while waiting for a flight with his family recently, when an advertisement for an electric foil board popped up.

"I saw it, it was great deal. It was $200 and had a counting down little clock on it and I thought I don't want to miss out, so I bought it."

He was feeling pretty happy with his purchase.

"I thought I was going to get one of these electric foil boards which is sort of the next level from an electric surfboard, where it's got a foil below the water which motorises it. So you're essentially riding above the water," he says.

"My thinking was this is great, I suck at surfing ... now I can surf without being as in the water."

But those hopes were dashed later that day, when the advertisement popped up again.

"There were comments this time. And the comments were littered with 'this is a scam', 'these are $12,000', 'there's no way you're getting this for $200."

James then went to the bank to report it.

"The lady laughed at me for a while," he says.

"And I had to explain what an electric surfboard was ... [they] cancelled my card and applied to dispute it. But because I paid on a Visa debit, I don't think I'm getting my money back."

All the while, 'something' was making its way to his work address.

James got email updates on a package being tracked but chose to ignore them, thinking nothing was coming.

But that changed on Thursday morning, when he was told a package had indeed arrived for him at the office.

"In a nice big box was this lovely dolphin boogie board. I do like the colours, " he laughed. "And I had been wanting a boogie board for a while so I'm not too upset."

James couldn't remember the name of the company that scammed him but showed the Herald an email receipt of the carbon black electronic surfboard he had paid $199 USD for.