Gumtree scam

[Caz1965]

My son advertised his mountain bike on gumtree as he is nearly 17 and saving for a car.

So pleased I looked at this page this morning as I was just about to send £300 to 'Jenniferannie' who agreed to purchase my son's bike for £700.  The message he received was exactly like many of these others...that she was buying the bike for her son and was deaf and in a wheelchair so was going to arrange for a courier to pick it up as she lived in Scotland and we lived in South Wales.  I was confused when the courier details came through and he was based in Kent - at least a 6 hour drive from us!). Then we had a message this morning nagging us for the transfer!! No way....

My son  also received an identical  message from the 'angelinamusic' person who I notice has been tagged here.

The emails regarding the money looked like it had come from Paypal but had lots of spelling and grammatical errors - this is when I looked at this page!  Thanks everyone for helping us save my son's £300.

[kernowlass]

@Caz1965

4 important tips when using Paypal...

Paypal NEVER tell you to send an item before the payment is showing in your paypal account.
Paypal do not tell you to send trackable, they advise it for selling protection but it is not compulsory.
Paypal NEVER expect you to use a rival money transfer service eg Moneygram or Western Union etc to pay a shipping agent.
Also their is no seller protection on paypal for any type of motor vehicle or item that is collected by the buyer.

[Buzz-1690]

I had a similar experience after advertising an item on Gumtree.  Initial communication by text, then follow up e-mail from “angelinamusic”.  Used the same spiel about being deaf and in a wheelchair and would get a courier to pick the item.  It didn’t feel genuine - definitely dodgy, so glad I did some background research on this.

[nellis6]

Same here. 13 August 2019, used the email angelinamusic...... Gave me the "I'm deaf, in a wheelchair, use a courier" crap. Asked to pay by Paypal but then I saw this. I was a bit suspicious from the start and thankfully found this