YAGS (Yet Another Gumtree Scam)

Just a little heads up to fellow woodies. Encountered another Scumtree scam today - new to me, but seems to have been around in various guises.

It's a bit of a variation on the 'cash on collection' theme. The basic premise is that the courier company takes payment for goods, seller verifies ID and gets paid, and the courier turns up to collect. They send you a link to a fake site to 'verify' your ID to collect payment, and harvest your details from that.

this one is masquerading as Pack and Send, but it's also been done with an Auspost theme.

Screenshots below for your delectation (not my best work, but I wasn't in the most sporting of moods) - managed to string him/her along until about midday before they gave up. No staying power these modern scammers. Grammar is better than usual - just the one error in the first para of the pack and Send 'screenshot'.

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S'funny eh? They never ever quibble about the price or ask any relevant details, unlike real Gumtree buyers who are too often the biggest bunch of scab low-ballers you can find, possibly even surpassing Facebook low-ballers.

The amount of effort they put into this is crazy. Definitely haven't heard of this one before... but I've noticed an uptick in the amount of 'My cousin will come to back it up, send me your mobile number and email for PAY payment'

I put a restored (derusted) 100+ year old blacksmith vice up for sale and the first enquiry was "Is it in perfect condition" Well hardly - I replied "no - its 100 years old so it has quit e few battle scars", buyer replied "OK I'll take it anyway" and proceed with a scam spiel.

Unless I know the buyer, or it's someone recommended by a friend is always "cash on pickup" or "$ into my bank account - before pickup".

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BobL

or "$ into my bank account - before pickup".

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But doesn't that give them enough info to scam? AFAIK, but I'll stand corrected, paying into PayPal via your email address is safer.