• When buying or selling, you should meet in-person to see the item and exchange money. The purpose of the Gumtree “For Sale” category is to encourage face-to-face, local, trading. For personal ease and safety, always ensure you take someone with you. If you're answering a home service ad, ask the poster to produce identity and proof of qualification before inviting them into your home.

• Never send your item before receiving the money

• Never send or wire money to sellers or buyers. This includes never mailing a cheque or using payment services like Bidpay, Western Union or Money Gram to pay for items found on Gumtree. It is our belief that these forms of funds transfer are favoured by fraudsters.

• Gumtree doesn’t offer any sort of buyer protection/ payment programs. Any emails you receive that talk about such systems are scams, even if they may have the Gumtree logo. If you receive any emails promoting these services, please report it to us.

• Please also take special care when buying expensive items like mobile phones, laptops, plasma TVs, airline tickets and even tickets for shows/gigs. When buying airline tickets we suggest you take the seller's name and ticket number, check the ticket exists and take responsibility yourself for changing the names.

• When buying tickets for events please be aware that some tickets may have terms printed on them that limit the ability of the original buyer to sell them to someone else. Some event tickets, e.g. Glastonbury Festival 2007, may also feature a photograph of the original buyer which may mean that anyone other than the original buyer may be refused entry to the event.

• Never provide your personal or banking information (e.g. credit card number) to others over the Internet.

• Make yourself aware of common scams and fraud - see our Scam Watch section. Do not believe the promise of large sums of money for your help in any task.

• Report to us any attempted fraud or suspicious emails, ads, or other activity by community members. In case of fraud or illegal activity, we also recommend that you report it to the Police.

• Use common sense. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

 

o View properties in person. Gumtree is a local community site and we encourage face-to-face, local, trading. People willing to rent a property without seeing it/ or the prospective tenant first, even if they claim that it is because they are currently overseas, are unlikely to be legitimate. For personal ease and safety, always ensure you take someone with you, or if you are inviting someone into your home ask to see personal identification first.

o It is illegal for agencies in the UK to charge fees for viewing properties/ property listings. Please report to us any agencies advertising on Gumtree that ask for fees upfront.

o Never send or wire money to landlords. This includes never mailing a cheque or using payment services like Bidpay, Western Union or Money Gram to pay for items found on Gumtree. It is our belief that these forms of funds transfer are favoured by fraudsters.

o Gumtree doesn’t offer any sort of buyer protection/ payment programs. Any emails that talk about such systems are scams, even if they may have the Gumtree logo. If you receive any emails promoting these services, please report it to us .

o Never provide your personal or banking information (e.g. credit card number) to others over the Internet.

o Make yourself aware of common scams and fraud - see our Scam Watch section. Do not believe the promise of large sums of money for your help in any task.

o Report to us any attempted fraud or suspicious emails, ads, or other activity by community members. In case of fraud, we also recommend that you report it to the Police.

o Use common sense. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

 

For all personal encounters with people you are not familiar with, we stress that you MUST TAKE CARE! Here are our top tips for staying safe:

• If you do decide to meet someone through Gumtree, for your own personal peace of mind and safety, we suggest that you meet in a very public place and if possible take someone along with you when you first meet the person. If you do not have a friend with you, then ensure that you tell someone exactly what you are doing, where you are going, when you are expected back, and give contact numbers, etc.

• Once at your rendezvous, if you feel at all uncomfortable with the situation, then we suggest you politely excuse yourself and leave. Do not feel obliged at any time during the encounter to do anything you are uncomfortable with.

• The friends/dating/casual categories are designed for individual people to meet others at a level that they are comfortable with. We promote safe practices and strongly advise people to use common sense and express due caution in every situation.

For sexual health information and advice take a look at Drthom.com .

 

• You should find out as much as you can about the company from independant resources before taking up a position. If you are an employer, follow up on references and check on their authenticity.

• Meet your prospective employers/ employees face to face.

• You should NOT have to provide your bank account details when applying for a job (this should only be once you have accepted an offer and started with the company). If any jobs ask you for them, please report the ads to Gumtree by clicking on ‘Report this posting for review by Gumtree admin’.

• Unfortunately some scammers do target job seekers so please make yourself aware of the common scams out there by looking at Scam Watch. All the usual common sense rules apply - if it looks too good to be true it probably is!

 

There are some dodgy people out there, and despite our efforts to keep them from Gumtree and protect you, occasionally a bogus ad or buyer slips through. Read here for some common scams on the net to watch out for.

• Brand name spoofing/phishing: You get an email that claims to be from Gumtree, eBay, Western Union, or another company and offers buyer protection or an online payment system or perhaps a cash prize. These emails will typically request that you send money or provide personal information. Any emails which combine urgency with some need for personal details should be treated with caution, no matter whom they purport to be from. Gumtree and most other companies will never send out such emails. If you send money via these sites you are likely sending money to the fraudsters.

If you receive an email alleging to be from a company offering a service then go directly to the company’s official website and look for details of the service.

• Cheque overpayment: A buyer or seller or prospective tenant will send you a cheque worth more than the value of the items/ rent and then ask for the surplus money to be returned to them or a third party, for example “to pay for shipping”. The cheque will clear into your bank, only to be stopped/refused weeks later. At this point, the Banks/Building Societies will take the full cheque amount back out of your account. Not only will you have lost the goods, you will be out of pocket for the amount of the cheque and the amount you passed on as the difference.

• Payment for brokerage/importing: A seller claims that there are brokerage fees, import duties, or other such fees required to get an item into the country. Do not pay such fees, as you will most often never get the product and will have lost any money you paid. Again, Gumtree is designed for local, face to face trading.

• Fake escrow sites: A buyer or seller or prospective tenant/ landlord suggests using an escrow service to complete the transaction. Often these escrow web sites are run by fraudsters (even though they may look "official") and they will take your money and never send you the product.

• Work from home: Many work from home offers are "pyramid schemes" which require you to recruit other members in order to get paid. For example, an ad may say that you can make 100 an hour by stuffing envelopes. But to make that money, you need to sell the system to others. Other work from home opportunities are fronts for money laundering - key warning sign should be any 'job' that involves you receiving cheques and cashing them. For these reasons we typically don't accept work from home positions on Gumtree.

• 419 Scams: You get an email saying that your help is needed to take money out of a country and that you will be paid a commission for your help. Eventually they will ask you for money to help them take the large amount of money out of the country and once you pay you will never hear from them again.

• Pet Shipping Scams
A seller will claim to have a pet and will offer to ship them from an overseas location, or even get you to book seats on a plane! These are usually sought after dog breeds such as English Bulldogs, Yorkshire Terriers and Chihuahuas. These ads are usually accompanied by ‘staged’ pictures. The pets don't exist and the fraudsters simply try to get you to pay money upfront. Remember: be wary of overseas sellers.

Other good sources of information to read about common scams on the net are:
• Get Safe Online - is an online safety guide with top 10 safety tips – well worth checking out.
• Metropolitan Police Fraud Alert Pages – is an information portal put together by the Metropolitan Police.
• You can also learn about current scams from other Gumtree users in the Gumtree Forums

 

We don’t tolerate harassment or abuse of our Gumtree users and take reports of this nature very seriously. If you have experienced abuse or harassment in connection to either an ad on Gumtree or an email received from a Gumtree user then please report it to us.

If you have received an abusive email you might also want to forward the details of the abusive email to the sender's email account provider (i.e., Yahoo!, Hotmail, AOL).

 

If you are posting an ad on Gumtree then we would recommend that you check the ‘Hide my email address’ tick box in all of your ads. This way we can protect you better from receiving spam emails. See here for more information.

 

We are 100% committed to making sure that everyone’s experience using Gumtree is safe and enjoyable. We also aim to do that in a way that doesn't stop the site being free and simple to use.

Some of the things that we have in place:

• technology behind the scenes to detect and prevent suspicious or inappropriate activity. This is something that we are investing more and more in.

• a dedicated Safety team who work 7 days a week, 365 days a year preventing and detecting suspicious or inappropriate activity on the site and responding to your reports.

• all reports of suspicious or illegal activity handled within 12 hours (and often much quicker), 7 days a week, 365 days a year. If we can identify from the report a safety risk to others then we will use the details provided to make sure as much as we possibly can that the offenders are prevented from using the site again.

• working closely with law enforcement

• safety advice across key areas of the site. This is key. Gumtree is a local classifieds site and by simply reminding everyone to meet safely, in-person to trade, safety issues that rely on online anonymity such as fraud can easily be avoided.

Issues such as fraud and spam are relentless, industry-wide problems but they can be avoided. While we continue to do more and more work behind the scenes to keep unscrupulous people off the site we encourage everyone to follow our safety advice as a simple and effective way to stay safe.

The good news is that the vast majority of people using Gumtree have a safe and successful experience.

 

If you have come across activity by other people using Gumtree that you feel is inappropriate, illegal or maybe just suspicious then please report it to us so that we can take a look, give you advice and take steps to protect others.

To report a suspicious ad
Either:
* Use the "Report this ad" button that can be found in the top right-hand corner of every ad. See here for details.
Or
* If you know the unique reference number of the ad then you can report it to us here

To report a suspicious email
Please report it to us here

What happens next?
We have a dedicated Safety team who look at every report received through these channels within just a few hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. If we can identify from the report that there is a safety risk to other users then we will make sure as much as we possibly can that the offenders are prevented from using the site again.

If you have been a victim of a crime we will also offer you advice about next steps including encouraging you to report it to the police. Unfortunately we can’t report a criminal offence to the police on your behalf, but we will happily assist the police in their investigations once you have reported it. For advice on reporting an issue to the police please see here.

For more about what we do to tackle safety issues please take a look here.

 

If you've been defrauded by someone or have reason to believe you have discovered stolen goods, we strongly encourage you to contact your local police to report the incident and ensure that you obtain a crime reference number. If the police take the matter further, the investigating police officer will contact Gumtree; and we will happily provide the police with any information that we may have to assist with their investigation.

Before you go to the police
Your transaction might not be a case of fraud or stolen goods, and it might be that you're dealing with a seller who is slow at sending an item or keeping in contact. In these cases, we encourage you to try and resolve the issue with the seller directly.

Is it a crime?
If you report your case to the police, they'll decide if it should be investigated as a crime or as a civil dispute. If the police feel that your case doesn't involve a criminal intent by the other party, it’s possible that they may advise you to take civil action to recover your losses through a county (small claims) court. To do this you will need to know the name and address of the other party. A police officer will be able to help you with this process and more information can be found here.

How do I make a police report?
The simplest way of reporting a crime is to go to your local police station or to call the local police operator on a non-emergency number. In most cases your report can be taken by telephone and followed up later. Some forces have an online crime reporting system, which you may be able to find on the web. The 'List of police forces in England and Wales' page on Wikipedia is a good starting point..

What evidence do I need?
The police will need essential details from you, such as the nature, date and time of the offence, who the victim is and the name and contact details that you have for the suspect(s). If you've exchanged emails with the other person, make sure that you keep them and print copies to provide to the police. If the offence is related to an ad on Gumtree then if possible print a copy of the ad or at least make a note of the unique ad reference number so that if need be the police can contact us for the details of that ad.

    

 

We are committed to keeping Gumtree a safe place and will always assist in a criminal investigation. In accordance with our privacy policy and data protection legislation, we will provide evidence to law enforcement and give evidence in court where necessary.

The following contact details are provided for use by the Police, Trading Standards and other law enforcement agencies when sending requests for information:

Fax: +44 (0) 208 605 3180

 

Then please contact us here so that we can help you out.