Another Gumtree Scam

[Blueingreen]

I recently answered an ad for a guitar on Gumtree (advertised as being a local sale). My first response asked for some details but before I got a response I posted a second saying I wanted to view the guitar.

They took a surprisingly long time to respond but when they did (under the name Tim Hall) they disregarded my second response and asked what information I was looking for. I responded again saying I wanted to come and view the guitar.

This prompted a response, the gist of which was:

The seller was on "vacation" and I couldn't view the guitar
He was willing to reduce the already lowish asking price by £200
However he wanted a quick commitment so he could stop talking to other buyers
He needed me to send the money to a Moneybookers Escrow account (presumably not genuine) which he provided a link for.

Since I wasn't born yesterday I posted a reply saying I wasn't interested in the guitar unless I could see it first and would pay cash on collection. As you can imagine that finished the correspondence.

I reported this to Gumtree and they advised me to cease all correspondence and told me the seller had now been banned from Gumtree.

The last time I advertised a guitar on Gumtree I was approached by two scammers one of which I reported and Gumtree agreed was suspect. So my recent record reads two transactions, 3 attempts to scam me.

I wonder if Gumtree have the will and resources to make it the "safe and friendly community" they claim it is. This guy should now be being interviewed by Mr Plod. Having his fictional alias banned from Gumtree isn't much of a deterrent.

[Dulcetjones]

We've had numerous similar incidents in North America with Craigslist, and to a lesser degree Kijiji. As long as people don't have to register with some kind of process involving showing proper ID it's going to keep happening. So far the only ones I've heard about on Kijiji were people claiming to be ticket scalpers selling non-existent great seats at the last minute for big name concerts. Once it got some publicity it stopped.