Please note that the information in this article was based on trends from 2013 and may now be outdated.
Ever been ripped off by sites like Gumtree? You’re not alone. Hundreds of Australians are conned in Gumtree scams each year.
Most of these scams prey on online shoppers who pay for their items and then never receive a thing. Pretty standard stuff. It could happen to any of us, actually.
The offenders are even known to provide documents such as a passport, driver’s licence and card details in order to alleviate any buyer concerns. Gumtree warns buyers to ensure they undertake thorough research before making payment and will pass on any fraud complaints to the police, but that’s where their help stops.
As an online marketplace, we are also concerned about our customers' safety. From the get-go, we ask businesses to verify their identity details, which includes providing us with copies of two official documents (like a passport and driver's licence) so we have their full contact details on record.
Although no direct money transactions occur through the site, we introduce businesses and customers and accept that it’s our responsibility to continue to facilitate this relationship until the job has been completed satisfactorily.
You can call and speak to our support team at any stage of the job process. We’ve also formed a compliance team to handle any issues that may arise. They won’t just palm off your concern to someone else but will follow up with the business in question to try and resolve your issue.
Better still, if we’re not satisfied with a business’ response, we will ban them from our site. It’s as simple as that.
What else do you think we should be doing to protect customers from being ripped off?
