Cheeky Gumtree Scam

P-Jay

Just had an e-mail from a mate, he's looking for a DH bike and, showing impecable taste was considering a Shocker.

Sent me this ad to look at, it's listed in Plymouth, but the 'seller' says the bike is on Shetland....

Only, it's not, it's in my Garage chained up BECAUSE IT'S MY BIKE! My bike, in a photo I took in my back garden a couple of years ago.

http://plymouth.gumtree.com/plymouth/19/67256919.html

So if anyone was thinking of buying it, don't it's a scam and mine isn't for sale.

http://plymouth.gumtree.com/plymouth/19/67256919.html

shieldsy94

Haha ok thats a bit stupid cause dont they sell via paypal??

P-Jay

I guess the scam is, they advertise it in Plymouth, local people contact the 'buyer' they claim the bike is at an old house / parents / friends which is conveiniately (sp?) the other end of the UK "but I can ship it for free if you can paypal me the money".

Only has to work once and they're £2k up.

shieldsy94

Yeah but any logical person would have a ride on a bike of that value, same with buying a car. If people buy it then their monument idiots

slimboyjim

As a police officer you'd be surprised how many of these sorts of scam we've had to deal with recently. Gumtree in particular - it doesn't self police in the way eBay does (they put no checks on sellers, and have no fraud department for example). Always pick items up in person (with someone else if lot of money is involved).

P-Jay

Well, Gumtree are on form,

They pulled it when I complained, but now it's back!

http://plymouth.gumtree.com/plymouth/19/67256919.html

Herbie The Dog

Maybe the buyer has found your photo online and just used it as he couldn't be arsed to take a photo himself?

For a thieving pikey scumbag he seems to know what is what on the bike.

Saying that I wouldn't buy anything from ScumTree anyway.

unixnerd

That happened to me, guy was selling a BMW 635CSi on ebay - MINE! Pics nicked from my website.

Briggo

P-Jay wrote:

I guess the scam is, they advertise it in Plymouth, local people contact the 'buyer' they claim the bike is at an old house / parents / friends which is conveiniately (sp?) the other end of the UK "but I can ship it for free if you can paypal me the money".

Only has to work once and they're £2k up.

If you paypal monies does it go straight into the sellers account straight away? Ebay auctions the money isnt released until after X amount of time or you leave feedback etc.

If it doesnt then you can raise a dispute and the seller will get f all no?

rudedog

Briggo wrote:

P-Jay wrote:

I guess the scam is, they advertise it in Plymouth, local people contact the 'buyer' they claim the bike is at an old house / parents / friends which is conveiniately (sp?) the other end of the UK "but I can ship it for free if you can paypal me the money".

Only has to work once and they're £2k up.

If you paypal monies does it go straight into the sellers account straight away? Ebay auctions the money isnt released until after X amount of time or you leave feedback etc.

If it doesnt then you can raise a dispute and the seller will get f all no?

You don't really get any decent form of paypal protection outside ebay.

P-Jay

Herbie The Dog wrote:

Maybe the buyer has found your photo online and just used it as he couldn't be arsed to take a photo himself?

For a thieving pikey scumbag he seems to know what is what on the bike.

Saying that I wouldn't buy anything from ScumTree anyway.

It's a custom build, the chances or having the EXACT same build are tiny, plus the write-up is a poorly editied version of one I wrote.

I had a bad fall about 18 months ago and was 'never going to ride again' and stuck it up for sale here and on pinkbike. Had a few offers but in the end I couldn't bare to part with it.

WisePranker

rudedog wrote:

Briggo wrote:

P-Jay wrote:

I guess the scam is, they advertise it in Plymouth, local people contact the 'buyer' they claim the bike is at an old house / parents / friends which is conveiniately (sp?) the other end of the UK "but I can ship it for free if you can paypal me the money".

Only has to work once and they're £2k up.

If you paypal monies does it go straight into the sellers account straight away? Ebay auctions the money isnt released until after X amount of time or you leave feedback etc.

If it doesnt then you can raise a dispute and the seller will get f all no?

You don't really get any decent form of paypal protection outside ebay.

The lack of protection is quite a poor show considering that Ebay own both Paypal and Gumtree!

schlepcycling

rudedog wrote:

You don't really get any decent form of paypal protection outside ebay.

That's not true, I've had a couple of paypal refunds from them when I bought from online retailers where I ordered stuff paid with paypal and it didn't arrive and the retailer wasn't interested, so I opened a paypal dispute and they paid out.

mobilekat

O guess all you can do is keep reporting it until the guy gives up.- and complain more about the fact its a fraud- the guy has the same id as last time.

Or contact him, meet up and poke him in the eye with a pointy stick (joke)

Anonymous

That it despicable :shock:

surreyxc

more worringly could they be stealing to order. No thief wants to be sitting on stolen goods. Take a pic of bike, then get a confirmed buyer at the end of the country, then steal bike, have it packed and shipped of within an hour.

jonnyc2420

^^my thoughts also^^

P-Jay

surreyxc wrote:

more worringly could they be stealing to order. No thief wants to be sitting on stolen goods. Take a pic of bike, then get a confirmed buyer at the end of the country, then steal bike, have it packed and shipped of within an hour.

I was worried about that too!

No one actually came to see it 'in the flesh' (or knows where I live) and the ad I listed was 18 months ago, so I suspect it for some sort of scam.

Now if it was a pic of the bike I han't taken, I'd be camping in my garage with a baseball bat.

rudedog

schlepcycling wrote:

rudedog wrote:

You don't really get any decent form of paypal protection outside ebay.

That's not true, I've had a couple of paypal refunds from them when I bought from online retailers where I ordered stuff paid with paypal and it didn't arrive and the retailer wasn't interested, so I opened a paypal dispute and they paid out.

We are specifically talking about protection concerning private sales - the protection you get there is pretty useless. They don't offer any kind of protection if the item wasn't as described. Also, if the item was never sent they will only recover what was in the senders paypal account when you raised the dispute - all a scammer has to do is move the money out of their paypal account after you've paid for an item and you won't get any money back.

heez29

Briggo wrote:

P-Jay wrote:

I guess the scam is, they advertise it in Plymouth, local people contact the 'buyer' they claim the bike is at an old house / parents / friends which is conveiniately (sp?) the other end of the UK "but I can ship it for free if you can paypal me the money".

Only has to work once and they're £2k up.

If you paypal monies does it go straight into the sellers account straight away? Ebay auctions the money isnt released until after X amount of time or you leave feedback etc.

If it doesnt then you can raise a dispute and the seller will get f all no?

Chances are they will ask you to 'gift' the money and then you will be fecked. If its done correctly as far as im aware it will sit in the other persons Paypal account for about 3 weeks so it can be 'cleared'

heez29

Briggo wrote:

P-Jay wrote:

I guess the scam is, they advertise it in Plymouth, local people contact the 'buyer' they claim the bike is at an old house / parents / friends which is conveiniately (sp?) the other end of the UK "but I can ship it for free if you can paypal me the money".

Only has to work once and they're £2k up.

If you paypal monies does it go straight into the sellers account straight away? Ebay auctions the money isnt released until after X amount of time or you leave feedback etc.

If it doesnt then you can raise a dispute and the seller will get f all no?

Chances are they will ask you to 'gift' the money and then you will be fecked. If its done correctly as far as im aware it will sit in the other persons Paypal account for about 3 weeks so it can be 'cleared'

02gf74

oh the old "it;s in Shetland" ploy.

was looking at a pair of rather expensive speakers, cheap, on gumtree that were n Shetland.

Depsite me offering to come over to shetland to pickc them up - still would have been a substantial saving, the seller insisted on sending them, and promised it was not a scam as he had family to feed so prison was not an option for him/her.

yeah, right. :twisted:

forestdwelling_gibbon

I think I have sort of worked out what these people do. They advertise something like a bike or car using details gleaned from another site (often an old advert) then request payment by 'escrow'. This could be the same as gifting money. I looked at a couple of bikes that were too good to be true on gumtree recently after getting an absolute bargain upon my first ever gumtree purchase. It seems that a lot of people are unfortunately doing this and praying on people stupid enough to part with their money in a nonsensical way?? Often they will the refer to the bike or car as 'the item', quite generic really but then I guess often they have many false items listed out there so don't want to give the game away.

This is only my take on it from the scumtree responses I got, I could well be wrong. Too many time wasters out there but defo a scam.

Luke-Dob

Always ask to pick it up, if they insist on posting it, find another ad....