anyone get phising calls/texts from 'buyers', when posting stuff on gumtree?

brightonman123

i have used gumtree to sell a few items, and it generally works fine.

Today i get a text from someone asking about an item, is it for sale? nothing wrong in that, apart from no name..?

calling back, i get an answefone.. so left a message.. 2 hours later, nothing, so i try again- the guy who answered was very vague as to what i was selling, the costs, location etc, despite all details being on the advert..

he then goes on to ask for me to text me my address, so he can find it??

i am 90% sure i recognise the man's voice from similar occurence, before..

i have reported to gumtree. but be wary if you get text from a number ending ..5306.

just all rather suss!

nsabournemouth

Scumtree. what a way to sell!

I have put stuff on there before and never ever again. I haven't been done but you get some right tw@ts trying to do you over

Selling phones you get the 'can you ship it via Royal Mail to Nigeria as my son is working for a church'

'i will pay you 100 GBP more to ship it to Nigeria' etc etc etc

You can tell from the start if they want it 'shipped' outside of the UK or if they have sent you an email with strange spelling etc in. I had one guy who nearly had me though and even went to the trouble of sending me a fake Paypal email saying the funds are waiting to be put in my account. When i told Phil to f off i got an email from Paypal saying they are going to issue legal proceedings against me if i do not issue a tracking reference.

Save yourself the hassle and don't sell on Gumtree

geordie_joe

nsabournemouth wrote: »

Save yourself the hassle and don't sell on Gumtree

I thought the whole point of selling on Gumtree was that it was local sales, you advertise something, someone turns up with cash and takes it way.

Nothing to do with paypal or shipping, you turn up with the cash, inspect the goods and if we are both happy you take them away.

I agree it is full of scammers, but if you stick to the principles it's fine.

When I sold on Gumtree I used to get loads of scammers. I especially liked the ones who were using automatic software to send the emails, but hadn't set it up properly.

I used to get emails like

Hi <insert name>

I have seen your <insert item name> on <insert selling site name>, can't you say how much it will cost to ship to <insert your country>.

I used to reply with

It will cost 100 tons of gold to send to you.

Then I'd get a reply saying

I can send you a cheque for <100 tons of gold>, but I need the <insert item name> fast, so will add another <100 tons of gold> to the cheque if you ship the item before the cheque has cleared.

sue341

Yeh there are a lot of online scams and many use classified ad sites to get "leads" for their scams.

hermum

I stupidly put my phone number on gumtree once, when I was getting rid of a desk, when I suggested to the male caller that 3am wasn't a reasonable time to call someone, I got so much abuse it wasn't true.

dacdesigns

I have been looking at cars on gumtree and you see some cars that should be about 10k listed for 3k quick sale :rotfl:

Must be the dodgy

Mr.Mulla

It is already a fact that there are so many scammers online. Craigslist, Gumtree, eBay, etc. wherever you post your items, there will always be people who will try to scam you.

I wouldn't recommend giving out information like addresses unless you verify the person, if they are legitimate buyer or not.

brightonman123

dont think gumtree is only site the scammers target, btw! friday-ad, freeads etc also have b'stards lurking..