Gumtree scam emails

Adam

Adam

Adam

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
9,279
Due to the costs of advertising via eBay, I have taken to Gumtree with great success previously. I normally advertise within my local area but decided to also list the item within London as well as the item is small enough for me to take to work.

In the past 24 hours I have received 8+ emails asking me to contact people via their email address outside of gumtree (all I suspect are a newly created @yahoo.com). These are obviously a scam and I don't reply so they will never find out my email address, but I am surprised at how many I have received

Here are a couple of examples:

are having your item for sale.
get back to me through this my email ******** at yahoo.co.uk
so that we can discuss
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Hello,
Let me know if your item is sill for sale my info is.
******
(@)
yahoo.com
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I suspect the scam will be along the lines of me sending the item and the payment bouncing/being recalled, not very sophisticated. People must fall for these though otherwise there wouldn't be so many!
 
Or it could just be from people that don't have a great grasp on the English language? :confused:

Just because it's not the Queen's English, doesn't mean it's a scam. Just saying...
 
Its funny you should post this. have just received an email about an item I just posted on gumtree. But surely if I send it as signed for/recorded then I have proof that the recipient has received the item?
 
bJN said:
Or it could just be from people that don't have a great grasp on the English language? :confused:

Just because it's not the Queen's English, doesn't mean it's a scam. Just saying...
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Every email follows the same format. You can communicate through Gumtree's masked email system so why does the communication need to move outside?

I don't think the fact that the English isn't perfect has anything to do with it personally. Clearly they are using disposable hotmail email addresses with the sole intent of cheating people out of their item/money.
 
JRY said:
Its funny you should post this. have just received an email about an item I just posted on gumtree. But surely if I send it as signed for/recorded then I have proof that the recipient has received the item?
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Correct, although it only really proves that SOMEONE signed for it. Isn't the signature uploaded to the RM website?
 
I fancy boys said:
They really annoy me, partially because they can't even compose a scam email in proper english....
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I was reading something about this recently actually, it seems they don't use correct English because it acts as a sort of selection process. Those who don't catch on to the fact that it's not written correctly are more likely to not catch on to the fact that it's a scam, until it's too late. As a result of this the scammers get far more 'successful' replies than they otherwise would, and would have to spend a lot of time filtering through those.
 
Whoa, something really dodgy here.

just a heads up for everyone that might receive such emails. I can confirm that they are scams.

As per the OP, got an email requesting to contact the buyer outside gumtree. Just got 1 instead of 8 so this didn't seem too suspicious. Anyway buyer requested total payment request via Paypal and say he can't pick it up because of work and its for a birthday present blah blah.

Anyway, just got an email requesting it to be delivered to Jane Adewale in Lagos, Nigeria!
 
Adam said:
Due to the costs of advertising via eBay, I have taken to Gumtree with great success previously. I normally advertise within my local area but decided to also list the item within London as well as the item is small enough for me to take to work.

In the past 24 hours I have received 8+ emails asking me to contact people via their email address outside of gumtree (all I suspect are a newly created @yahoo.com). These are obviously a scam and I don't reply so they will never find out my email address, but I am surprised at how many I have received

Here are a couple of examples:





I suspect the scam will be along the lines of me sending the item and the payment bouncing/being recalled, not very sophisticated. People must fall for these though otherwise there wouldn't be so many!
Click to expand...


Easy answer is meet them in person, and accept cash only.

It's what I always do.
 
TommyV said:
Easy answer is meet them in person, and accept cash only.

It's what I always do.
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As do I, but these aren't worth replying to as they are so blatantly a scam. I can't believe people would think otherwise?

These scammers must have a decent amount of success or I wouldn't have received 8 emails in such a short amount of time!
 
I have used gumtree for years. Before the last upgrade there was more problems than there is now. At least they have the system now where you can message internally. Before it was all just direct email. There was all different types of problem, people doing the housing scams, the wire transfer scams, every time you post. People also try and make fake sales, especially in housing, they do it just to get calls. They put properties that are too good too be true for the price.

It is recommend to only to sell goods by meeting someone face to face via gumtree. You can't treat it like ebay where you post goods and expect payment.
 
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So, they've managed to infest Gumtree as well...

If only there was a way to get their IP and send them a minature PC-Nuke. I'd single handedly **** every last one of them.
Having said that, the only reason they exist is because of the easily scammed folk who have the intelligence of a rotten cabbage, so blame them I say. It makes me so angry.
 
Adam said:
These are obviously a scam and I don't reply so they will never find out my email address, but I am surprised at how many I have received
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Gumtree masks your email address in every reply, that's why the scammers ask for your email because they "can't" seem to contact you or want to speak to you directly or some bs.

Just ignore and report the emails.

krooton said:
They happen with every posting, does Gumtree have anti-bot measures?
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Not every posting, I've noticed with Cameras and Handheld consoles (PSP) you'll get loads more emails being scammers. Anything thats small and easy to ship they will try and scam you out of.
 
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