[whistleblower]

Be warned that despite being reported there are still literally hundreds of ads on line where people are pretending that a Links of London/Tiffany/Pandora item is an unwanted present or gift or that they e just have one to sell when in fact they have a whole supply of these items which are not the genuine thing.They are poor quality Chinese fake copies complete with fake boxes and bags etc.Real items cost from £200 to £2000 pounds the replicas are offered between £25 and £70 and can be bought from China for between £4.00 and £8.

[jonin60seconds]

Thanks for flagging this. The ones you reported have been taken off but the baddies but new similar / identical ads right back up so we just take them down again. Its lots of fun for the admins as you can imagine!

[whistleblower]

Hi Yes I understand wjhat you are telling me but still cannot comprehend why ads that I and others have reported as illegal are still showing up live on the orginal day they were posted.Surely if they were reposted they would show up on the actual day they were reposted and not back in their original slot. When I click on to ads I have reported they are stilll up an running up to 10 days later and sowing a this ad has already been reported flash and have not been deleted.
The Scottish cities seem to be rife with illegal ads for Links of London/Tiffany and Pandora going back some time.All appear to have been reported but are stll there.

[whistleblower]

here are just a few examples from the Glasgow site 46783100 47361052 40859707 47555560 47619414 4711904 if you go through all the Links of London ads you will see that they all haven reported but not dleted up to 10 days ago

[whistleblower]

here are just a few examples of illegal ad atill running on the Glasgow site 46783100 47711904 47619414 47555560 40859707 47361052 46783100

[jonin60seconds]

And for the sake of the CS team here at Gumtree, what makes you think they are counterfeit (even if it is obvious!)

[whistleblower]

Firstly the real items sell between £200 and £2000 each.
Secondly if you go to any market or car boot you will see tables full of the stuff from as low as £12 up to about £30 per item.The quality of the jewellery is poor( I know someone who bought an alleged silver item which went black after a few weeks) and the boxes and bags are sometimes quite shoddy.
On questioning a car booter about their authenticity he admiited that he imported them from China so I checked and found that a Links item being offered at £25 cost from £5 to £8.50 depending on quantity bought.
Thirdly every wee chinese handcart in shopping malls has them craftily hidden away amongst other jewellery.
Fourthly in the local paper last week there was an article sbout trading standards raiding a car boot in Lanark and confiscating copy dvds,cigarettes,home made wine and replicas of Links of London jewellery.
Also the alleged reasons for selling it ,unwanted gift,only worn once etc.
Then there are all the repeat ads from the same advertisers for lots of different Links items,obviously all these the advertisers have not laid out many thousands of pounds on the real items.
Apart from that I was on holday in a caarvan for school week and someone was trying to sell them in the pub there at night.
and finally on almost every city on Gumtree there are loads of ads for this stuff PS also how all of of sudden are there vast amounts of people selling vasts amounts of a very exclusive and expensive brand for pennies?

[montyzuma]

if you google links of london scam

you will get links to ebay warnings with tips on how to tell the fake ones

[jonin60seconds]

[whistleblower]

Thanks,I have already had a look at that and am aware of the ways to tell the difference.

I did not want to go into marking and stamping of charms and links and clasps etc and positioning of logos ,weight,etc .
I thought you just wanted a laymans view point.

Apart from all that I am a retired jeweler and can tel real silver from crap at a 100 paces.

[jonin60seconds]

Ah right, perhaps I will refer the CS team to you for advice on such matters then cause you would probably know better than them

[whistleblower]

No,Your team probably knows one hell of a lot more about this kind of scam than I do. Anyway all I am trying to,alas to no avail,is help you stop people getting conned by reporting ads that are illegal which you then to choose to ignore.
I take it that the CS team is the compliance team?

[montyzuma]

[whistleblower]

slight poetic licence . however you would know if you stepped in puppy crap

[montyzuma]

nope the nose has gone as well
im full of the cold

[jonin60seconds]

[whistleblower]

Hi

I am surprised that despite all my posts and your replies there are still (despite being reported) dozens of ads on the Scottish cities advertising cheap and nasty poor quality Chinese fake copies of Links of London items.

All your team need to do is log in to the city,type in Links of London and lo and behold a vast number of illegal ads for these products will show up.

Why is deleting them proving to be so difficult for your team surely it can be easily done?

Some of the ads go back quite some time.

[montyzuma]

FOR THE SAME REASON THAT THERE ARE LOADS OF DOG SCAMS

they dont have enough people, i suspect.

[whistleblower]

what is a dog scam?

[montyzuma]

if you look under pets for sale, dogs, under london for instance

you will see dozens per day of pups for sale under £200
they are all from cameroonian scammers who try to con you out of the money

[StaffPuppYOwner]

"dozens per day of pups for sale under £200 " .

I would say it was more like 1000s of fake puppy adds posted a day ,maybe 10's of 1000's

[whistleblower]

Oh dear you must be snowed under.It must be difficult chipping away at the bottom of a pyramid while people are constantly adding to the top of it?

I noticed this moring that on the Scottich cities the same con people are re advertising or posting new ads to try and sell fake Chinese copies of Links of London/Thomas Sabo and Tiffany.

I or other people have duly reproted them.

Perhaps if you get a moment you can have a look at them and delete them?


Is it not possible to ban the persistent offenders from posting ads?

[jonin60seconds]

we do ban persistent offenders but the smart ones find a way back. We are working on a longer term solution that will get rid of them permanently. It will take a bit of time because we need to get it right!

[whistleblower]

Hi,thanks,glad you are doing something about it long term,in the short term is it possible to keep taking down the illegal ads as they are reported?

[jonin60seconds]

Yeah we will keep taking them down. If you report them illegal, they will get the swiftest action