Most of you may already know but there is a major scam the people are doing after seeing an item on gumtree that you are selling. I currently have my mountain bike on gumtree, this morning I got a txt from 07(edited) asking me to email sharonshayluv “at”(edited).com ( wouldn’t let me post the email address properly) about my bike so I did. This is the response I got and after doing some research I have seen that this is a common opening to get you hooked into the scam ; Please consider it sold and take the ads down. I am interested in buying it today as a gift for someone and am ready to pay your full asking price . i have read through the advert and i'm totally satisfied with it and i will be glad if you can get back to me fast. Sadly i won't be able to come for the inspection and pick up due to my disabilities,i lost my hearing and being on a wheelchair but I have a courier agent that will help me to pick it up at your preferred location do the delivery .Regarding the payment, i can only pay via PayPal at the moment and I will be responsible for all the PayPal fee/charges on this transaction. kindly get back to me with your PayPal email and the pick up location so that i can make payment and inform the courier agent about it now. Awaiting your reply soon This person goes by the name of Sharon Mc(edited by moderator) which I presume is not their real name. Basically I thought I’d go along with the scam to waste their time. The bike was up for £1300, I got fake emails from PayPal saying I had received £1650 which I hadn’t. I then got an email from the “Sharon” saying that she was having problems with the courier and that they wanted payment to collect my bike upfront and that because she was disabled she couldn’t do it and that I had to transfer the extra £350 that she had supposedly sent was for me to transfer into a western union account to pay for the courier. This is obviously the scam as if I had sent that £350 I would have never seen that money again and the scam was complete. Don’t get caught out, I’ve seen that they sometimes say they work overseas or they have had major surgery and that’s why a courier is required. I hope this saves some people from getting done over by this scam.
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