I have been scammed on gumtree

pendragon_arther

Over the years I've heard so many scams connected to Gumtree I'd never go near them with a barge-pole.

LadyDee

pendragon_arther wrote: »

Over the years I've heard so many scams connected to Gumtree I'd never go near them with a barge-pole.

I have bought and sold many things on Gumtree and, if used in the way it was intended, meet face to face in a safe place, exchange goods for cash then it works.

Paying by bank transfer is the problem, not Gumtree.

ScorpiondeRooftrouser

pendragon_arther wrote: »

Over the years I've heard so many scams connected to Gumtree I'd never go near them with a barge-pole.

Gumtree is simply a small ads platform. Scammers could scam you just as easily from a classified ad in the paper, or a card in a newsagent's window, and those avenues offer just as much protection (that is, none at all) as Gumtree does.

If people are under the impression that Gumtree is anything more than that, as you seem to be, then that is their problem.

Who on earth would send a guy advertising on a card in a newsagent's window, or a newspaper classified ad, money by bank transfer? Nobody. Yet simply because it is online people don't seem to be able to understand what it is.

soolin

pendragon_arther wrote: »

Over the years I've heard so many scams connected to Gumtree I'd never go near them with a barge-pole.

As has been said it is no riskier than other remote selling. As long as sellers, and buyers, use their common sense things will be fine.

Double_V

So that means anyone can go about scam people off and nothing will happen to that person.
This cannot be right.
There must be some way to catch or punish these scammers.

wealdroam

Double_V wrote: »

So that means anyone can go about scam people off and nothing will happen to that person.
This cannot be right.
There must be some way to catch or punish these scammers.

Just a minute...

Can I rephrase the first sentence of your post into:
"So that means anyone can send their own money to anyone else without the nanny state stopping them".

The OP has told us they sent some money to someone they didn't know, without even getting an address for that person.

Why are you saying it has to be someone else's fault?

This situation is the fault of no-one else other than the OP.
There is no fault in the system.

lovinituk

Double_V wrote: »

So that means anyone can go about scam people off and nothing will happen to that person.
This cannot be right.
There must be some way to catch or punish these scammers.

If people just stopped for a minute and thought about what they were doing, they wouldn't send money via unprotected methods to the scammers and eventually scammers would give up trying.

The OP has not been the first to be caught out and certainly won't be the last.

Sadly, a combination of lack of awareness and often greed, leads people to do silly things. Just like the people that repsond to General Mumgumbo about the £2million that is coming their way!

Personally I think they should teach about this in schools if they don't already.

Double_V

Yeah and the money was sent to a bank account in the UK can the bank not give you persons address ? (not to you but to police so they can chase them or any other body who deals with these scams )

shaun_from_Africa

lovinituk wrote: »

Personally I think they should teach about this in schools if they don't already.

From my experiences, most of the people in schools at the moment are far more computer literate and switched on about computer and internet security than the majority of older people.

lovinituk

Double_V wrote: »

Yeah and the money was sent to a bank account in the UK can the bank not give you persons address ? (not to you but to police so they can chase them or any other body who deals with these scams )

The police won't get involved. They haven't got enough resources to deal with 'real' crime, let alone every Tom, !!!! and Harry who has a moment of madness and basically gives away their hard earned money to a total stranger.