I recently advertised a bike for sale on Gumtree and after a couple of emails over price I received this email from a prospective buyer which seemed strange to me and I remember reading about something similar on this forum
needless to say I said I'd only sell local and for cash, pick up, haven't had a reply
"Thanks for the swift response. Am really impressed in purchasing and i need to make the payment right away as i need it urgently and kindly inform if you have other items for sale as i need some stuff for my new apartment and also am not in state right now and am willing to make payment via PayPal or bank transfer to your account and as well pick up will be made by a shipping company once payment is made to your account. Kindly get back to me with your paypal email address or bank details i.e bank name, account number and bsb so i can proceed with payment and pick up can as well be made immediately. I shall be waiting on your soonest mail once you receive my message.
Thanks and please kindly inform other buyers it is already sold."
if I'm not mistaken, eBay started offering a 'classifieds' system a couple of years back. Intended for cheap items and local pickup only, it worked quite well and I sold various things quite successfully.
I noticed that the last couple of times I went into eBay Classifieds, you end up on Gumtree - at least over here in WA you do. So it looks as if eBay probably bought them out.
Anyone else experienced this?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Octane
Yep, that's a typical scumtree scam.
I don't know why anyone even bothers with that place. It is a festering breeding ground for scammers.
You give them a Paypal address then they run computer algoritms till they crack your password and clean you out.. Apparently.
My wife likes selling on Bumtree - no idea why. We get those SMS scams all the time, and I ALWAYS write something horrible back. I cannot help myself. Last guy wanted to pay my wife $30,000 FOR A PAIR OF LADIES HIGH HEEL SHOES....I said sure, send it, and I'll send when the money clears and I close my account...
The best we ever got was a GENUINE buyer. Wanted us to deliver the item - a $15 bread maker - and it was *ONLY* a 2 hr drive. She begged us to, as she really needed it, but did not drive etc.
Sorry - I'm a bit thick. How does this scam work? You give them a Paypal address, then what ?
Hi Andrew,
I had this one pulled on me when selling a car recently. The guy said he was a marine surveyor and couldn't pick the car up,as he was at sea, but would organise a shipping company to pick it up and ship it to New Zealand. He would pay me by Paypal and I would shortly receive an email from Paypal confirming payment. He then sent another email saying the shipping company would only accept payment via Western Union, and he was adding the shipping costs to the Paypal payment. Would I go to the post office and pay the shipping company contact by Western Union? (a private name and address in England)
Then an email came from Paypal (phony, but with their logo etc.)saying he had payed the money to them, but they could not release it until I provided proof to them of the Western Union payment of $2000.00
I was very suspicious and checked my Paypal account-no notification!
Rang Paypal to confirm it was a fraud, and sent them all the info.
Talking to one of my patients, and he told me his son got stung for $6000.00 with the same scam.
I have to stress that neither Paypal or Western Union had any involvement.
Thanks Larry and H. Wouldn't pass my 'bulldust' test, the moment I start hearing excuses and complications I extract myself immediately. I did buy a nice 12-24f2.8 Nikon lens here in Perth on Gumtree...
Cheers,
Andrew.
hard to believe, a 12" meade SCt for $1760 with free shipping world wide.
A brand new 12" LX90 SCT with free shipping world wide for just USD$1760!!!
Seller in Singapore.
Last told him,will pay cash and i will pick up while in Singapore with request for address.....no reply!
A brand new 12" LX90 SCT with free shipping world wide for just USD$1760!!!
Seller in Singapore.
Last told him,will pay cash and i will pick up while in Singapore with request for address.....no reply!
Thanks Larry and H. Wouldn't pass my 'bulldust' test, the moment I start hearing excuses and complications I extract myself immediately. I did buy a nice 12-24f2.8 Nikon lens here in Perth on Gumtree...
Cheers,
Andrew.
Unfortunately some people fall for this stuff. The scammers only need a small percentage of wood ducks to fall for it and they are doing very nicely.
The other one doing the rounds is the Woolworths customer survey-I get that one at least once a week.
If you have been the target of one of these scam letters you may be interested to know that the Nigerian Scam is not a product of the computer age and emails.
Below is a little piece I discovered while researching other material in the Meccano Magazine of October 1922.
If you have been the target of one of these scam letters you may be interested to know that the Nigerian Scam is not a product of the computer age and emails.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
If you have been the target of one of these scam letters you may be interested to know that the Nigerian Scam is not a product of the computer age and emails.
Below is a little piece I discovered while researching other material in the Meccano Magazine of October 1922.
Barry
Scams are nothing new, just easier with the advent of the Internet and mobile phones. More access means more scams and more suckers. After all, it is a numbers game.
Frankly, it still amazes me that intelligent people still get caught by these scams. I have seen some extremely sophisticated scams, but I still saw through them, but perhaps that because I may Australia's greatest sceptic
Get rich quick schemes are a dime-a-dozen. In my book, slow and steady wins the race. Ok, so I am risk averse, but is that so bad?
Frankly, it still amazes me that intelligent people still get caught by these scams. I have seen some extremely sophisticated scams, but I still saw through them, but perhaps that because I may Australia's greatest sceptic
They don't expect to catch intelligent people. Remember PT Barnum: "There's one born every minute". One victim per million emails would probably keep them happy.
IQ tests are supposed to be standardised to give a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. A bit of statistics gives 15% of the population fall below IQ 85. 2% below 70. It is those people the scammers expect to hit.
They don't expect to catch intelligent people. Remember PT Barnum: "There's one born every minute". One victim per million emails would probably keep them happy.
IQ tests are supposed to be standardised to give a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. A bit of statistics gives 15% of the population fall below IQ 85. 2% below 70. It is those people the scammers expect to hit.
au contraire Andrew.
Supposedly intelligent people have been caught up in scams, many times, as many scams are quite sophisticated, such as the classic "ponzie schemes". One of the biggest scams that catch out supposedly intelligent people are the "love" scams. It isn't just those of low IQ that get caught but those that have vulnerabilities as well.
Yes, many scams are targeted at those that are not so smart, but I feel that may be an oversimplification of scammers targets, as we are all targets, just depends on how good the scam is.
