Gumtree

officegirl21

Hi,

Just wanted to warn people of a possible scam.

I replied to an ad on Gumtree regarding a car, it would have been ideal for my daughter who has just passed her test.

The seller responded via email advising the car was in tip-top condition, all paperwork was available and the car had 6 months Road Tax and 12 months MOT.

Transpired the car is in London, seller was advertising in Edinburgh Gumtree. The seller is living in Spain following a recent move. The car is in storage and a quick sale was required. The seller did provide plausible explanations to all my concerns.

I requested information on how to proceed with the financial side of the transaction, still dubious it has to be said! I then received two emails from 'Ebay' Advising me that the seller was using one of their Ebay agents in Spain. I was requested to transfer £1.5k via Western Union, the agent would advise the seller I had paid the funds, the agent would then hold the funds until I had received the car and confirmed all was well. Only at this stage would any funds be transferred to the seller.

Ebay clearly advise buyers not to use Western Union and to only purchase directly via your online account.

The email addresses sent to me from 'Ebay" came from the customer service DEPARTAMENT

I have emailed Gumtree regarding the AD but have not received a response.

I'm sure everyone is really savvy now and wouldn't fall for this - but I wanted to reiterate when you have doubts listen to them! This guy had answers for all my original concerns and with friends and family telling you to trust people a little more I could easily have been swayed into making a transfer/purchase. Just glad I'm too scared of a bargain

paddyrg

Quick rule of thumb - anyone demanding payment via Western Union is 99% likely to be ripping you off! It is untraceable and irreversible unlike a bank transfer.

ukjoel

Gumtree is a scammers paradise.

I often do county wide searches or look in different parts of the country and the site is full of the same ads for the same products (pets, ipads, i phones, etc) with the same ad, same pic, no phone number, and in different parts of the country.

Gumtree take them down when you raise a complaint but bearing in mind someones full time job seems to be putting them up again they are everywhere.

What worries me most is that a lot of the scams are poor quality as you mention however its only matter of time before they get smarter.

ashleypride

ukjoel wrote: »

What worries me most is that a lot of the scams are poor quality as you mention however its only matter of time before they get smarter.

It will always be rather easy not to be scammed though, if selling only do cash on collection, if buying give cash on collection.

Gavin83

I would never buy anything from Gumtree, far too risky. I have sold a few bits on there quite successfully before though and it's awesome for finding flatmates.

DeeMarie89

This e-mail that seems to be from eBay CS, if you look you'll see it's from an odd e-mail, usually along the lines of weareebayhonest@gmail.com
I can almost guarantee you this is a scam. I had several similar experiences when house hunting. Amazingly, about 5 different houses in different areas were all up for urgent rent from couples who had gone to join a convent in Africa, and they weren't bothered about me paying a continuous rent, they just wanted someone to look after the house, but could I pay a £1000 deposit, yadda yadda.
When they gave me the respective addresses, they were office blocks, shops, and the two that were residential properties had very surprised owners when I knocked the door

PZH

ashleypride wrote: »

.... if buying give cash on collection.

But be absolutely certain the goods are not counterfeit / stolen / faulty / etc BEFORE you hand over your cash....

Oliver14

Gumtree is basically a face to face venue like your local free ads paper. So if any possible transaction differs from the way you would buy something from the paper then alarm bells should ring,

dealer_wins

paddyrg wrote: »

Quick rule of thumb - anyone demanding payment via Western Union is [STRIKE]99%[/STRIKE] 100% likely to be ripping you off! It is untraceable and irreversible unlike a bank transfer.

Anyone wanting payment via western union on Ebay or Gumtree is 100% guaranteed to be a fraudster.

If there is a genuine seller that uses Western Union then he wont get many sales :rotfl:

Bridesmaid83

There are scams all over that website. I don't bother using it anymore.

Widelats

I avoid gumtree unless i'm searching local listings i can personally see with my own eyes first etc.