I've been trying to sell an item on gumtree and have been contacted by somone who only wants to correspond by email claiming to be overseas wanting me to assist with getting his payment to the shipping company he has entrusted to collect the item from me and ship it to him. All seemed very legit except for the part where I have to outlay money from my own pocket before his payment via pay pal can be transferred to my acc. This is my first time selling on gumtree so was totally unaware of this taking place. The fact that I was being asked to send money to a shipping company in China via a western union bank transfer was enough to get me to look into the shipping Co and pay pal and this is when I came across this site. To think I nearly rushed off to a western union branch in my eagerness to sell my item. So beware Lewis John and auto shippers international
Welcome to Scamwarners mjm.
That's what the scammer intends - that your eagerness overwhelms your common sense. Any time you're selling an item and the buyer expects you to make a payment to him first - you're being scammed, without having to look any deeper.
Of course in this case making payment by Western Union, the shipping company claiming to be located in China is actually quite daft. There is no earthly reason for you to pay the so called shipping company anything as, if it were genuine, he could pay them himself. The only reason is that he can't scam you unless he operates it this way.
This scam is very common and most people know what to look out for but the scammer only needs a few victims to 'bite' and he earns a nice income from sending out this message to hundreds of sellers daily. He can work this scam without ever having to move from the bar, except to collect his winnings.
