**Beware**Gumtree**Scam**

[Temp20221108A]

I posted several items on gumtree for sale and received a text from a woman called **** ***** asking if I still had an item (the most expensive one on the list) and to email her.

Eager to sell the item, I obliged and emailed her. She replied with the following:

Great! please consider both sold as i am willing to pay your full asking price because i need to buy it for my cousin asap,

i have read through the advert and i'm totally satisfied with it,

sadly i would not be able to come personally to collect due to my hearing loss and I'm just recovering from heart surgery so I'm home-bound.

I have a courier agent that would help me to pick it up at your preferred location after you have received your money and i'll pay you via PayPal once you are ready.

Kindly get back to me with your location so that i can inform the courier agent about it now?

I replied asking if she was local to me and if a bank transfer or cash on collection would be possible. She ignored the 1st question and said she has no access to bank because she is house bound. Then gave me a link to PayPal.

After repeatedly asking where she was from and only getting her email address as a reply, I googled her name and came across a thread detailing the email I received but using a different name. So be careful. **** ***** (******** at ****.***) 

[Shedload1]

Thanks for the heads up.

Pity you not allowed to show name of scammer.

[lyricmanlondon]

Does Gumtree remove scammers once they have been reported?

I have also come across scammers on Shpock who say that they want to purchase your item and ask you to email them. If you do, they ask you to send them pictures of your item and they use them to clone your for sale posting. 

[BjörnBorg]

Mills, but it’s fake probably stolen from FB.

[sidfromiceage]

Hi,

I know this thread started in 2017, but this is 2022 and I just want to let everyone know that this scam is still going on Gumtree. We want to get this out here to help others avoid falling for this!

We got a message from a guy (or girl) called 'Brain' claiming his (or her) mum was interested in purchasing our sofa. His (or her) mum called 'Abigail [removed]' (username is [removed]) sent us this email:

Thank you for getting back to me. My son read and understand your Ad right and he assured me that i will not be disappointed buying it. I'm ready to pay your asking price,but i just want you to assure me very well on this and the issue is that I'm very busy for now and am not around but i have a pick up agent coming for the pick up after the payment has been made to you and he will be present for all necessary thing that is needed. Due to my job, there is strictly no call that is why i ask my son to send you an email our satellite server has been down due to work. But I'm able to access my mail anytime as i will make use of wireless laptop.i have gone through your advertisement and i am satisfied with it

My Mode of payment is via PayPal as as i don't have access to my bank account online, but i have it attached to my PayPal account and this is why i insisted on using PayPal to pay. I will be responsible for all the PayPal fee/charges on this transaction and , if you don't have an account with PayPal, its pretty easy, safe and secured to open one.Just log on to www.paypal.co.uk i hope we can make the purchase as fast as possible.I have a mover that will be coming for the pick up once payment clears and they will be handling the title for me. So i look forward to hear from you soon. Please get back to me with your

Full Name:

PayPal E-Mail Address:

Firm price:

We received the following email afterwards:

Thanks, i got the PayPal email now and i will be sending the payment now but i wish to inform you that i would be adding an extra £50.00 GBP to the £400.00 GBP am sending into your PayPal account, which is for the charged fee for the pick up company to register the (Item) for pick up and delivery so you'll help me send £50 to the company agent via Amazon Gift Card after the payment confirmation...

At which point we realised this was an attempted fraud.

Most likely they'll claim a chargeback through PayPal or write to their bank claiming our transaction is fraudulent. Either way, we'd lose money through the Amazon Gift Card.

To be honest, we should have picked it up from the earlier email (satellite servers ????) but we got there in the end! We declined to proceed, blocked the email and, importantly, didn't lose any money!

Hope this helps people avoid making the same mistakes we did.

Stay safe everyone!

[kernowlass]

@sidfromiceage 

Scam has been ongoing for the 15 years I have been helping on here.

You are incorrect on one part though, they do not have to do a chargeback as they never use paypal.

They just get you to send a money request so that they have your email address to send fake paypal emails.

All they want is that courier payment, they don't want any item you are selling and never pay anything anyway.

[sidfromiceage]

@kernowlass 

Thanks for letting us know.

We learnt our lesson.

Also thanks to Google for showing us this forum. Hope it helps more people in the future!

Cheers!

[Thehat]

 I listed some artificial grass on gumtree and was contacted by a buyer who initially contacted me on gumtree saying (asking if it can be picked up by a van man after i have made the payment) of cause i agreed i then get emails (I've forwarded the address to the Guy with Van to calculate the cost of pick up and delivery for me. I will make the payment as soon as he get back to me. Can you also delete the AD from the website to stop further inquiry. I'm Joseph.) again i thought yes ok no problem then he sends (That's great, thank you. Can you please confirm the full name associated with the paypal account?) which i thought ok PayPal is fine sent details i then get (The Guy with the Van just got back to me. Right now everything is set, I gave him your information. He would contact you to schedule pick up date and time. But I have a little problem which I am sure you can help me through it. The Van guy wants his money through an Amazon Gift card which I couldn't get due to my present condition(I'm home-bound). I'll include the £105 he charged me for pick up and delivery to the PayPal payment I'll send to you. You will help me go to any nearest store to purchase the gift card for the Value of £105. I will also include an additional £20 for your time and fuel. I will be happy if you can do this for me. Please let me know in your response, if you could help me get the gift cards for the Van Man and I will proceed with the payment now. He will collect the cards from you at the time of pick up. Regards,Joseph.) ( i then get a notification email from PayPal saying you have an instant payment ) i then get another email from PayPal You have a payment on hold! below Dear Martyn <Removed>, We would like to inform you that a payment of ££££££ GBP sent to your PayPal account from Joseph <Removed> has been successfully received by us. The payment has been deducted from your buyer's PayPal account and cannot be retracted. The amount sent to you includes delivery charges £105.00 GBP. Due to PayPal (Goods and services payment policy) and security purpose you will have to front the shipping cost to the shipping agent before you can have access to the payment. This is done in order to protect you and your buyer from online scam. You are covered by our world-class fraud protection: we monitor transactions 24/7 for suspicious activity. The delivery agent would like to be paid with an Amazon gift card. This is very easy, kindly visit any Clinton Card, McColls, Superdrug or any nearest store to purchase the Amazon GIFT CARD with Cash. You will purchase 1 piece of £100 card and 1x £5 card. You will need to gently scratch off the cards, take picture of the cards one by one with the receipt and send it to us in reply to this message. Please Note: You can also purchase the card on the Amazon website and they will email you E-Code which you can also forward to us. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this process might cause you. The payment will be available in your PayPal account immediately we have received the picture of the cards with receipt. Feel free to reply to this message with any question. Yours sincerely, PayPal.) I then get several emails from this joseph saying (I've made the payment now. PayPal must have sent you the payment confirmation messages to your email which will confirm the payment and tell you how to proceed. Let me know if you received it or have any question regarding this. Thanks.) (if you are buying the gift card on the Amazon website, they will just send the Ecode to you. Its ok if its cool with you. You can give him the E-code at the time of pick up) Asked for details because it seemed a bit fishy he said (What details do you need of him. He is just a guy that owns a van and use it for delivery. I have used him once or twice before and hes diligent.I am in Norwich.) (Can you please forward the PayPal messages you received to.) I have messaged PayPal to see if this is genuine and amazon and no one has got back i think prob a scam but need to check if genuine i am happy to sell the product

[kernowlass]

@Thehat 

SCAM.

They encourage you to accept a 'direct' Paypal payment and need your full name to send you a more realistic FAKE paypal email.
No funds or activity of the transaction shows in your Paypal account and any emails 'may' go into your junk/spam folders.

They don't quibble on cost and may also say they can't view the item as they are disabled or working abroad etc etc but they will arrange a shipping agent to collect it.

You will get/got a "fake" email that looks as though it is from paypal.....it isn't because they don't actually have a Paypal account and have no intention of paying you.
It will say the buyer has paid ...you won't have been paid.

The 'fake' paypal email will tell you that the buyer has paid for the item + shipping costs but you must send those shipping costs to the courier/ shipping agent via anther payment processor than Paypal OR via providing some vouchers or tokens before the funds are released to you.
They are not interested in the item, they just want that couriers/shipping funds and you will never see money in your paypal balance.

Once you have become a victim they may try again with more fake Paypal emails with other 'reasons' that you must send them a payment for in the form of vouchers or tokens etc.

Paypal NEVER tell you to send an item or pay any money (as a seller) before the payment is showing in your paypal account.
Paypal NEVER expect you to use a rival money transfer service eg Moneygram or Western Union etc.
Also their is no seller protection on paypal for any type of item that is collected by the buyer.

Delete any emails and ignore the scammers.

[Graeme34]

Thanks for all the info - much appreciated!

Graeme

[NikkiDibs]

I have had exactly the same email trails from a supposed buyer. Word for word. What a waste of time. Thank you for posting this so I knew my reservations there was something wrong, were confirmed. Best wishes N