The great Gumtree SCAM

webbo · Joined: 22 Feb 2006 Posts: 16

Dude, what on earth are you talking about.
You have made no sense whatsoever. I am pretty sure Gumtree aren't in the business of taking backhanders from Scammers to allow them to keep using the site Rolling Eyes

I reckon Richard and Judy would laugh you out of their building mate, because you sould like a psycho Applause

twiggy · Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2007 9:13 am Post subject:

Just in case anyone has any doubts on this - scammers are not welcome on Gumtree. They never have been and they never will be. We remove any ads, either reported to us or found by us, that we believe to be guilty of illegal or fraudulent activity whether they have used the bump up service or not.

Please help us keep Gumtree free of any scammers you come across by reporting them to us. We will then investigate and take necessary action.

Key signs of a scammer include:

- unwillingness to meet face to face (Gumtree is a local community site so we always encourage face to face transactions)

- request for payment by western union/ money gram/ fake escrow site or via non-existant Gumtree or eBay payment programs - see this link:

http://forums.gumtree.com/about47434.html

- propose overpaying for an item via cheque and asking you to send back the excess funds (fraudulent buyers)

There is lots more information in these forums about scams and what to watch out for, see in particular:

http://forums.gumtree.com/about39.html

rinomanfroni · Joined: 28 Mar 2008 Posts: 1

I have paid an expensive 317 Pounds (or 661 of my dollars, damn!) for a premium 6 months membership to be able to post my ads being myself a letting agency. Well, what they do is they just do not post my ads at all! They just got my money and they do not give me the service I am asking for! They just replied to one email saying they do not allow other websites ads and therefore my ads are not eligible. So now I have paid a membership which is supposed to be designed for real estate agencies and my ads are automatically canceled as soon as I press the "Post an Ad" button!!!

They do not reply to any of the other emails I sent to them.

This is just a scam website and I am very disappointed that I have fallen for that and paid all of these money for actually NOTHING! Gumtree, I want to see my money Back! Unique Paypal Transaction ID #35M95996JH848742S

Ripdoff · Joined: 09 Mar 2008 Posts: 61

Raise a Paypal claim mate....thats what I had to do.

Gumtree seem to have serious problems in the customer relations dept, so do not expect assistance from them!

john7 · Joined: 03 Feb 2009 Posts: 1

I have seen several ads posted under different names that are linked to the same scam. One other posting on this forum shows the actual replies to be identical to the ones I received.

Warning! This guy was accepting my decreasing offers for a BMW 320D 2005 eventually accepting £500.00 as long as I logged on "quickly" to his suggested website. The plate number for the car was missing one letter, and eventually after a week he gave me a number plate for an Audi A4!

He appears to be located in California though he said he had just moved to Newcastle from London and needed to sell the car quick.

The website, can I say the name? supposedly based in Newcastle was full of spelling mistakes, although quite professional with AA, Ebuyer etc icons etc to make it look legit.

Ok, there were a lot of tell tales that this was a scam but I do worry that no-one seems to be shuting them down!
I have informed the authorities but I do wonder if Gumtree might be able to do something proactive here? any joy?

brianoblivion · Joined: 01 Mar 2009 Posts: 1

This guy was rather keen on getting hold of a graphic tablet... so keen that he didn't even bother bargaining and showed himself up as a rather dumb scammer:

Thanks For your mail here is my destination address where i want you to ship it
to, right now i am still in Manchester but my son will be leaving tomorrow
morning to that address as it is an oilfield in the west coast.I am willing to
make payment now and will also appreciate shipment tomorrow as well and through Royalmail international signed for be paying the sum of £200.00
GBP Item including the shipment cost..
Please send me your PayPal email address for quick payment and also
pack the Item ready for shipment.or your full Name and your address with phone
number so that i can make the Payment paypal if you accept please give your
paypal e-mail address so that i can make the payment through paypal link or
send me paypal invoices to my e-mail:brighton_mark1@yahoo.com or through Nochex
Postal Money order
Thanks
brighton mark

What a fool!

briana · Joined: 19 Mar 2009 Posts: 1

Hello,
First of all I want to thank you for your interest for my car. I sell at this price R 59.000 because i just finished the divorce with my husband. When the divorce has finished i own this car. Now as a women i don't need. This car is in excellent working conditions, no scratches, flaws or any kind of damage, slightly used in 100% working and looking conditions and comes with a clear title, 3 months transferable warranty. From the beginning you have to know that for the payment I request ONLY secure pay, I prefer the payment to be done using eBay services. We will use a safe payment method because I am affiliated at eBay and I have a purchase protection account for R 100.000. The final price that I want for this car isR 59.000 including shipping and handling..

Thank you and have a lovely day.ASAP

And after asking a few questions this reply

--- On Wed, 3/18/09, dona.franclon <dona.franclon@gmail.com> wrote:

From: dona.franclon <dona.franclon@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: a2005 BMW X5 3.0d
To: brianalex@ymail.com
Date: Wednesday, March 18, 2009, 8:39 PM

I'm really sorry for you but i think is to late for inspection because i'm not in the country for the moment (like you know i just finished the divorce with my husband and i have moved to my parents home in New York / USA / 10001 for a while.) And ship company already prepared the car for ship. I want to tell you that is to late for inspection and the only way that we can close this deal is to make me a deposit(R29.000) to eBay so i could start the ship. In case that you are still interested please email me your final answer.
I will ship my car from Musina/South Africa. You will have 15 days from the time you receive the car to inspect it and decide if you want to keep it or not. If by any reason, you will not be satisfied for the car, you will return the car to shipping company with no xpence. I will pay for shipping.If you are interested in buying it please provide me your full name and address (Address ...City....Stat...Zip...)so I can initiate the deal through eBay.

Thank you

abel_seeman · Joined: 01 Dec 2006 Posts: 86

gmaxi79 · Joined: 04 Nov 2009 Posts: 7

I was scammed for 2 concert tickets by a
Daniel Bradley
email address
splits_screen@yahoo.co.uk

asked me too send payment via online banking which I did and I never recieved the tickets, please avoid!

montyzuma · Community Moderator Joined: 25 Jul 2007 Posts: 7536

contact your local police station and give them all the info including the ad no. if you have it. hopefully if you have bank detaisl something can be done

gmaxi79 · Joined: 04 Nov 2009 Posts: 7

Yeah I reported to a friend who is a police, he is going to add it to their system, so at least the scums name will be known.
Daniel Bradley
Splits_screen@yahoo.co.uk m

AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE

StaffPuppYOwner · Joined: 04 Aug 2009 Posts: 86

http://profiles.yahoo.com/splits_screen

Member Since: 22/10/2009

Looks like a newly created email account , that tells me it is not his main account and was probably created to scam on . Chances are he is already doing the same under a new email account .

Remember Gumtree is about face to face trading , there are many scammers out there that try to get you to send them money without you ever meeting them , stay clear of them .

jonin60seconds · Gumtree Admin Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 1286

Staff, you and Monty are legends. Thanks for looking after the community.

That is all!

gmaxi79 · Joined: 04 Nov 2009 Posts: 7

I passed splits_screen@yahoo.co.uk details onto the police anyway, it might not do any good but at least Daniel Bradley will have his name known by police.

jonin60seconds · Gumtree Admin Joined: 18 Mar 2009 Posts: 1286

Yeah good idea Gmaxi, you never know what might happen. There have been quite a few scamsters convicted this year. There was that ticket scammer from Wales about 3 months ago which got big headlines. The more that get caught, the greater the deterrent

StaffPuppYOwner · Joined: 04 Aug 2009 Posts: 86

If the online banking involved Western Union or MoneyGram then i fear your money is lost and he will get away with it.

If it was not either of those 2 companies then you may have a chance of a refund . Did you report the transaction to your bank as theft/deception ?

I hope the police help you and this bugger is caught

montyzuma · Community Moderator Joined: 25 Jul 2007 Posts: 7536

nope it was online banking, so hopefully theres a chance.

MiaJekosi · Joined: 10 Nov 2009 Posts: 3 Location: Edinburgh

Do scammers ever call on the phone?

StaffPuppYOwner · Joined: 04 Aug 2009 Posts: 86

Yes they call and will give out their numbers so people call them .

Most scammers are not from the UK and buy phone numbers that look like UK mobile phone numbers , those numbers though are always 070 numbers . A 070 number is NOT a UK phone number , they are hugely popular with Cameroon scammers .

They will also now try and hide the 070 part by presenting the number as +4470 rather than 070 .

montyzuma · Community Moderator Joined: 25 Jul 2007 Posts: 7536

i managed to get a nigerian scammer into conversation once and they can phone uk very cheaply

MiaJekosi · Joined: 10 Nov 2009 Posts: 3 Location: Edinburgh

The guy in the phone mentioned moneygram so I stopped answering his calls- thanks to everyone in this forum for alerting me. Back to square one now though Sad

Maybe this link has already been posted before but one guy (in Oxford) recorded a conversation with a scammer. Nigerian? It wasn't a 070 number though. I found it when i typed money gram scam gumtree into google:

http://juntasekimori.wordpress.com/2009/09/17/crook-aburra-sits-in-the-old-gumtree-part-3-jj-moreton/

StaffPuppYOwner · Joined: 04 Aug 2009 Posts: 86

There are a few clips on YT of people prank calling scammers with soundboards Laughing

You maybe back to square 1 MiaJekosi but atleast you were not scammed and lost no money Cool