gumtree scam

amt1
New Community Member

PUBLIC SERVICE ANOUNCEMENT ***do not click on links in sent emails*** Posted an ad for a exercise bike and very quickly got a response from 'Shirley <removed>', who quickly began to tell me about her issues organising pick up of the item from overseas. Then asked me to organise pick up deposit via transfer to Western Union. Be aware of deposit to Western Union accounts, this bank is regularly use for phishing. Also, recieved fake emails from PayPal, that landed in my junk email - they intially gave steps to transfer to Western Union and then a second one threated legal action if I didn't follow through with transfer. I also got sent through a scan of Darwin based license for <removed>, I'll be attempting to contact Darwin police. I have also contacted paypal. It looked like a legit message, albeit with a lot of extraneous infomation and requests!

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4 REPLIES 4

kernowlass
Esteemed Advisor
Esteemed Advisor

@amt1

 

Been ongoing for about 15 years and is all over the internet and this forum, glad you weren't caught out.


Advice is voluntary.
Kudos / Solution appreciated.
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Jaydeve
Contributor
Contributor

Unfortunately I had this exact thing happen to me 2 days ago. I posted an ad for a treadmill and soon heard back from “Shirley <removed>”. I am new to gumtree so was a perfect candidate to get sucked in by this scam. I have lost $1000 but I hat I think is worse, I also gave her a photo of my drivers license along with the photo of the paysafe card vouchers I had purchased for her transport costs. I believed it was all legit as I was getting separate emails from “PayPal” telling my money was on hold from Shirley <removed> and would be released once I followed the steps required (buy paysafe safe vouchers, photograph my license and send back. I feel totally exposed and scared of what the ramifications will be re my identity theft.

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Almostdone11
New Community Member

Shirley is still active and tried to get me on an exercise bike again on gumtree. Luckily for me I smelled a rat and didn’t proceed. I don’t know why this dead**bleep**can’t be tracked down and stopped. 

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johnkimble
New Community Member

Shirley is still out there. I listed a cross trainer on gumtree yesterday and received a text message to my iphone:

 

"Hi,Just Viewed your Gym fitness AD, Pls confirm your asking price & condition to my email: <removed> Email only. Shirley."

 

It screamed scam to me and a quick search of the email address led me to this forum.

 

SELLER BEWARE!!

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