How can you tell if that Gumtree buyer is actually a crook? Wendy Knowler has the details
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By getting clued up on their tricks, says Consumerwatch’s Wendy Knowler
If you’ve got electronics - cellphone, laptop - or a generator to sell, it is sure to be snapped up by a buyer on Gumtree or OLX.
The trouble is. many of those supposed buyers are crooks, their aim being to get their hands on your laptop or bicycle.
A few months ago, Roland placed an ad on Gumtree for PC parts and ended up gifting them to a thief. “In hindsight, I now realise all the suspicion markers were there.
But men posed as church members said they needed my pc parts urgently, had someone come around and pick up the goods, sent fake proof of payment routed through some SMS portal, and of course, money never came through.”
In Laché Pretorius’s case, it was a keyboard, which she advertised for sale on Gumtree just last week for R12 000.
As a first-time seller on Gumtree, she missed all the red flags.
To find out what they were, and what Gumtree’s doing to protect its users from fraudsters, and how to spot them when posting something for sale, take a listen...
If you’ve got electronics - cellphone, laptop - or a generator to sell, it is sure to be snapped up by a buyer on Gumtree or OLX.
The trouble is. many of those supposed buyers are crooks, their aim being to get their hands on your laptop or bicycle.
A few months ago, Roland placed an ad on Gumtree for PC parts and ended up gifting them to a thief. “In hindsight, I now realise all the suspicion markers were there.
But men posed as church members said they needed my pc parts urgently, had someone come around and pick up the goods, sent fake proof of payment routed through some SMS portal, and of course, money never came through.”
In Laché Pretorius’s case, it was a keyboard, which she advertised for sale on Gumtree just last week for R12 000.
As a first-time seller on Gumtree, she missed all the red flags.
To find out what they were, and what Gumtree’s doing to protect its users from fraudsters, and how to spot them when posting something for sale, take a listen...