Pennies for thought

Gumtree is a fantastic marketplace for buying second-hand goods locally but is open for a lot of abuse.

The most common and effective scam is actually not a buying scam it is aimed at sellers.

You will receive an email about your item from a person who is somewhere abroad and looking to buy the item for a relative that is also abroad somewhere else on ‘training’ or some other story. They will ask you a postage quote for sending it out to some country and by now you should be thinking ‘why don’t you just send them the money and let them but it?’ but you are pleased someone wants it.

The next step is that they will offer to pay the full amount by Paypal and transfer you £0 but tell you the full funds are held in Paypal waiting on arrival of the item. You send them the item to some remote location and you sit and wait for the money that doesn’t exist. Don’t feel stupid if you are ever caught by internet scams, these people are relentless snakes so just spread the word!

Please avoid any foreign buyers and remember Paypal does not hold funds!