Hi everyone,
I have recently posted a bicycle on Gumtree (community buy/sell).
I have had a response via text with the phone number which has been converted to a name, asking me to reply via email to a different gmail email address.
I did so and received a long email which sound suspicious. The person (bot?) replying has a story below.
Thanks for the prompt response. I am ready to buy it now as a gift for my son and i am at sea at the moment as i am a maritime engineer and due to the nature of my work, phone calls making and visiting websites are restricted but I squeezed out time to check this advert and send you an email regarding it. I really want it to be a surprise for My son so I won't let him know anything about it until it gets delivered to him, i am sure he will be more than happy with it. I insisted on PayPal because i don't have access to my bank account online as i don't have internet banking, but i can pay from my paypal account, as i have my bank a/c attached to it, i will need you to give me your paypal email address and the price so i can make the payments asap for it and pls if you don't have paypal account yet, it is very easy to set up, go to www.paypal.com and get it set up, after you have set it up i will only need the e-mail address you use for registration with paypal so as to put the money through. I have a pick up agent that will come and pick it up after i have made the payments...Thanks!!!
I usually deal locally when using Gumtree, so it is usually cash in hand, or money transfer before meeting for larger amounts.
My concerns are that the money will be transferred and then retracted, the money transferred is from a stolen card or similar, the agent picking up and the actual buyer will end up having conflicting reports and refuse/dispute the transaction.
Anyone come across a scam similar? Or am I overzealous?
Thanks
Brad
