Gumtree - what's the scam?

londoncommuter

I've never bought anything through it but Gumtree puzzles me. I haven't looked that much but there are some seemingly slightly too good to be true offers. You then see the identical item maybe with a different location repeated e.g.

http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/new-2 ... 1002872249

http://www.gumtree.com/p/for-sale/new-2 ... 1002771705

You contact the owner and never hear anything back from them. What's the scam? Nobody tries to rip you off, just seems a waste of time.

simona75

Probably because the items have been recovered by the Police

sungod

imho the scam is gumtree itself

after having a bike pinched and fenced on gumtree, i did some digging

the scum who did mine were advertising at least 5 other bikes, at least one still unsold (i called the thief to check on one), i gave the info to the police, they did nothing, i complained to gumtree and they followed suit, not their problem, they'll only do something if the police contact them

any ad with a payg mobile number, put the number in the search box, if you find the same number used by danny, mick, sharon, etc. then imo it's likely to be a thief flogging things off under a range of fake names with a number that can't be traced

at least with ebay+paypal there's some degree of authentication

but with gumtree it's as if they designed it to make life easy for thieves, they don't care, just rake in the money from advertising to people looking at their site

nicklouse

same picture here http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-2012-2013-S ... 7675.l2557

ShutUpLegs

Hi- Is the gruppo still for sail?

kleinstroker

The scam is they are never where they say they are, but they will post it to you... promise!!!

dizzydane

Pretty much all the bikes I know of that have been stolen have appeared on Gumtree...