Did you get scammed on Gumtree?
I got scammed and lost $90.87.
Here is the story:
I have been wanting to sell a brand new laptop bag for a few months. Last week, a friend of mine said that she bought a Jay Chou concert ticket from Gumtree. I thought that I should give Gumtree a go to sell my bag.
It is a brand-new laptop bag that I only used once and it still with tags on it. The full price on the brand’s website is around $400 AUD. I quickly created an account on Gumtree and posted the ads with pictures of the bag. I set $220 for this item, and it is really a bargain if someone is looking for a quality laptop bag.
To my surprise, I got a response in an hour. A buyer in WA said that she has paid the asked price including postage.
I was a bit suspicious when I saw the buyer sending me a link but I was aware that I could link my Paypal with Gumtree to receive payments.
I checked the Paypal bottom on Gumtree and then linked my Paypal after receiving the link because I thought that the buyer might have paid via Paypal, which is a service that Gumtree provided.
“You probably haven’t used Gumtree yet? The money has already been paid including delivery, follow the link and get it on a convenient card.”
That was right. It was my first time selling an item on Gumtree. I am less but still suspicious, so I checked the Gumtree website. There is a yellow notice on the top:
“All official Gumtree pages will contain gumtree.com.au in the URL and https:// at the beginning. Gumtree does not offer a delivery service, and Gumtree will never send communication via text or Whatsapp.”
I looked at the link again, it did start with http://gumtree. The communication was not via text or Whatsapp either, it was via Gumtree’s message box. I then thought ok, maybe this link is legit. So I decided to click on it.
The page was showing the Gumtree logo, with the buyer’s name and postage address. At the bottom of the page, it shows that the buyer has paid $235. The $15 extra must be for the postage. Then the page is showing that I would need to link a card to receive the payment.
I thought that ok, maybe she was right. She did pay for the bag and postage. But I was not sure if the $15 was enough for the postage. I thought that maybe I will need to post it first to get the actual postage at the post office. Then I also noticed the link has a section regarding the postage that I will need to go to the post office. I do know that companies like Amazon will prepare a bar code for returning products. So I thought that Gumtree might do the same thing.
I decided to link my card to receive the payment first before posting the bag. I typed in my card details including CVV. I know that for a service like this, usually, the service provider will charge one dollar or $0.01 to link the card. The site then require me to put my balance on the card, at that time I did not suspect it.
I put through my credit card details. I thought that well, maybe I should try a debit card because I am not sure what’s the balance for my credit card. So I closed the page. Looking back now, I was grateful that I didn’t put the balance of my credit card into the site, otherwise, I would have lost way more than $90.87.
When I came back home, I tried a debit card. The balance was $0.01. However, the process did not go through. I was thinking maybe it was because I didn’t use a card from a major bank, and some banks are not supported by certain services. While I was thinking, I received a notification from the support on the webpage. It said that I need a balance of at least $100 for the first time. I thought oh, that’s really helpful, otherwise, I would not be able to receive the money. I did have a similar experience with Beem, an app that links with a card for small transactions, if I don’t have any money left in the account, I couldn’t even receive money. I should notice that it was unusual that the support chat is initiating the conversation, but at that time my focus was on what was wrong with the card.
I then topped up the card with $100 and tried again. This time, it seemed that they were able to process the payment. I even received a security code from my bank. I know that my bank will send security codes when I am linking my card, so without hesitation, I provided the code. The webpage was processed for a long time and failed at the end. I was confused. I then received a new security code from my bank. I provided it again. It was a very similar long process and eventually failed again. The support chat then messaged me that they could not make the payment and that I needed to try another card.
I didn’t have many cards. The only other card was my credit card and another debit card that I rarely use. I almost decided to use my credit card again. I was planning to try the other debit card, but then I thought that I should transfer the $100 to the other debit card first. When I checked my bank app, I was shocked that the $100.01 balance became $8.94 with a $91.07 pending transfer. I did not authorise the transaction to deduct $91.07 from my account, and only then I realised why they were asking for a $100 balance, and why there were two sets of security codes.
I immediately took screenshots of all the chats and the pages, and contact the bank to recall the transaction and block my card. But it seems to be too late as the bank said that only the merchant can cancel the payment once it has been paid, even if it is pending, and I would have to wait for the dispute team, which may take 60 days to investigate.
The support team was still waiting for me to try a new card. From then on, I was able to spot every flag in their words that were illogical. At the end of the chat, I said that I did not authorise the transaction, and please refund me. I will report to the police and Gumtree. The link shortly stopped working.
I then reported to Gumtree and the police, but I think that at this stage, only the banks might help me to get my deducted funds back, and there is no guarantee.
I also posted a video on my Chinese social media to share the scam so that more people would know how to protect themselves. To my surprise, I received a lot of comments saying that they have very similar experiences from Gumtree, and also, from Facebook Markets. In one comment, someone even lost over $5,000 for trying to receive a $70 payment.
I think that Gumtree’s notice was inefficient and it did not take enough actions under its duty of care to protect its users, especially the new users. I chose Gumtree because I trusted it as a well-known second-hand goods trading platform. I was suspicious about the link as my first instance, but it was Gumtree’s notice made me feel that it was legit.
If you have a similar experience, let me know. I think that there are quite a few people who lost their money in scams like this.
If you are interested in buying my bag, I am still selling it.
