Gumtree Scam or Legit?

Jack

The wording of the email is typical of the scammer, haven't seen the "Aust Army Corp before but same MO as the "I work on an oil rig"etc. My guess is its a scam

Cheers

Ted

SCAM !!!
I had a very similar email when I listed my cruiser a few years ago.
I played along for a while with a few email exchanges.
I think it works by gaining your trust and commitment to the deal, then getting you to advance some money for the freight, which the scammer promises to reimburse.
Guess what? - that will never happen.
Barry

Jack

Which part of the email do you think is genuine? Even the english in it isn't very good.

Reply to him with the all important information and tell him it's history. Tell him it was previously owned by internet scammers and you picked it up at a good price.

Then see what happens.

Sounds like BS but there is always a chance that its legit.

Ask for his phone number plus his Army details. He's in the Army but is 'on board' something which sounds like Navy.
Get the delivery address and contact details. Look it up on google street map and see if it exists.
Get him to advance deposit the offered $200 into your Paypal account. See what happens with that.

Seriously?? 100% scam, I'll highlight the dodgy bits...basically, the lot, but in particular;

The Australian Army is made from various Corps (Infantry, Aviation, Armored, Medical etc), no such thing as The Australian Army Corps.

They don't have phone, but do have the bandwidth for some officer to be trawling Gumtree?

Aviation University, yeah, right. There are university places that cover aviation, but no one would say their kid is at scientist/doctor/nurse/accountant university.
Anyway, who cares? You are selling the thing, not conducting interviews with a view to re-homing it.

Your vehicle is such a rare beast that he is offering to pay above what you are asking, not negotiating at all and wants to ship it to the NT?

Very busy, but can trawl Gumtree?

On Board.... but he is Army? Aahh, forgot to change that one from the Navy emails you were sending out last month...(A Navy mate got one of those last year, sent him a massive reply full of 3 and 4 letter acronyms, both real and imagined).

Operating Officer. No one says that.

Can't access his account through online banking, but can still get Gumtree?

Don't waste your time.

Thank you for all your replies, which confirm my suspicions. I will tell him that if the courier arrives with cash it can go on the truck.
Greatly appreciate your help.
Jack

So what I don't understand is how the scammer makes money just with the knowledge of your BSB or Paypal account ID.

Can anyone explain how that could happen unless the seller is stupid enough actually send money to the scammer....

I always respond with " Lets catch up with Skype".
You will never here from them again.

Seems a bit like this....

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-02/scammers-targeting-car-buyers-and-sellers-online/7293160

Hi Jack, as everyone has responded, it is an absolute Scam. Similar thing happened to me when I listed my Camper on Gumtree a few years ago. I had at least 4 scammers contact me including by phone with similar stories. On checking the some of the phone numbers that came through, some were routed through the US, and some through GB.

One guy even offered me more than what I was asking for in order to get me in. He even emailed me a fake paypal account with my name on it showing the money already credited. The catch was I had to forward him the cost of his "local" agent that was coming to pick up the van. This money was also supposedly in the paypal account.

I contacted both paypal & gumtree informing them of the scam. Paypal assured me they had nothing to do with the account, they also advised that the logo on the email was not their correct logo. Gumtree apologised and advised that they were aware that these scammers were out there, but unfortunately, there was nothing they could do about them.

Macca.

Jack, absolute scam so tell them nothing. This scammer(s) produce a fake PayPal document which they send to you which appears they have deposited money into your PayPal account. They then want yo to pay someone who will pick up the item. However if you go to your account you won't see any money deposited. I had three such attempts when selling our camper last year, all within an hour of listing. They were all claiming the writer was on a NZ oil rig but there are other variants such as the armed services. Won't be surprised if one day he/she claims to be on the space station !!
Ken

Scam.
As mentioned, there is no such thing as "Australian Army Corps".
Serving or ex would never use this phrase.
Cheers.

Just ignore it. Its so obvious its a scam. You always get that on gumtree no matter what ever vehicle you sell. Just delete it and get on with it.

If it walks like a duck....................

I put the Missus' surplus 2001 Camry on Gumtree and Trading Post late last year and immediately had about 5 or 6 scammers trying to pull fast ones.

The Trading Post is worse than Gumtree for scammers.

Bottom line is - who purchases a vehicle without a personal inspection and test drive?? No-one who is genuine, would.

The sad part is - thousands of Australian fools are conned annually, into handing over personal details, bank account details, and large sums of money to these scumbags.

http://www.swtimes.com.au/?news/south-western-times/elderly-man-loses-35k-to-scam-ng-b88735370z

You can only shake your head at their total and complete gullibility, and just wonder where they have been living all their lives. The scammers are expert at targeting the gullible.

Key warnings that give you a hint, that you're being targeted by scammers ...

1. The massive urgency of the deal. The scammers know that stating a pressing urgency to complete a deal, with big dollars coming easy, makes gullible people do stupid things to get that easy money .

2. Poor spelling and grammar that shows the writer of the email or texts does not have English as his primary language.

3. The need to use untraceable, devious or roundabout transaction methods.

4. No direct, face-to-face contact is ever available. A hundred reasons given for not being able to do so.

Your State Consumer groups usually have a ScamWatch page, giving you a lot more hints and advice and warnings about current scams.
Check the ScamWatch pages for the current scams, and old scams being repeated.


Here's one surprise I got recently. I got a text out of the blue, reputedly from BankWest, stating my credit card "ending in XXXX" (with the correct last 4 numbers) had been compromised, and a new one would be issued by 7:00AM the following morning.

The number it came from was an Australian mobile number, and there was no ability to reply to the number, nor did a Google search bring the number up.

I went to my BankWest CC account and found nothing wrong, and no website messages from BankWest.

I dismissed it as a texting scam, and deleted the text.
Lo and behold, I went to the BankWest site next morning, and found my card access blocked, and a message from BankWest stating my card had to be re-issued with a new number, due to "unauthorised activity".

They issued a new card promptly, and I've had no other problems.
The interesting thing is, this card is one I rarely use, and I haven't presented it physically for use, for a long time.

I have made a few overseas online purchases with it, though - but only with eBay, PayPal and a couple of sizeable genuine American businesses.
I can only imagine the problem came from a hack attack on the website of one of the American businesses.

Cheers, Ron.