There are unscrupulous people in all walks of life and the internet is no different. At Gumtree we treat every instance of fraud, abuse or spam extremely seriously and do our very best to protect our users and make your visit to Gumtree safe and enjoyable. But we also encourage you to be on your guard and so, to help you stay safe, we have pulled together some key information on things to watch out for and some top tips.

Remember that Gumtree is a local classifieds web site and ads are not reviewed before they go live on the site.

• If you see an ad on the Gumtree site that you suspect is Spam, illegal, or otherwise violates Gumtree's policies, please click on the links found under "Report this Ad" in the top right of the ad's page. Reporting ads brings the ad to our attention so that we will review and can take it down quickly if appropriate.
• If you reply to an ad and the person who posted the ad emails you with a suspicious request (eg. asks for money to be sent to them via a payment service), please forward us the email and stop all communications with that person.
• If you are the victim of fraud, inform Gumtree and your local police service.
• Report all suspicious email addresses and web sites to spoof@gumtree.sg and make sure you copy and paste the email communication received in its entirety to the email.
  
  What is spoof/fraudulent email or web site? Click here for further detail.

• If you have any other security questions that aren't answered above, then please contact us.

• 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. This includes never mailing a cheque or using payment services like Bidpay, Western Union or Money Gram to pay for items found on Gumtree.
• 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.
• Gumtree doesn't offer any sort of Live Chat Support. If you receive any emails containing a Live Chat link, 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.
• 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. Do not believe the promise of large sums of money for your help in any task.
• Report it 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.

Buying & Selling Tickets – top tips for staying safe:

• When selling or 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. Please check out resell policies, terms and conditions with the official event organiser before selling or buying a ticket on Gumtree.
• Buyers please ensure the legitimacy of tickets before handing over money and again refer to resell policies, terms and conditions with the official event organiser.
• Buyers double check that the ticket isn't canceled by the event organiser before handing over money.
• Buyers be a little cautious with sellers offering printed tickets as dodgy sellers can print several copies and sell to more than one buyer and only the buyer who arrives at the event first will be authorised to enter. Again refer to resell policies, terms and conditions with the official event organiser as some events will also require you to produce a photo id to confirm you are the original buyer.

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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. Do not believe the promise of large sums of money for your help in any task.
• Report it 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.

• You should find out as much as you can about the company from independent 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 it to us
• Unfortunately some scammers do target job seekers so please make yourself aware of the common scams out there. 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.

• You’ve won the lottery! Fake lotteries, sweepstakes and competitions exploit a dream that many of us have - oh to live the Lotto life! Often these competitions will say that they are held in a different country and that you were automatically entered into the draw or someone entered on your behalf.
  

  Scammers rip you off by getting you to:

• Call or text a phone number (often starting with 19) where you are charged for the duration of the call.


• Send your bank and other personal details, which they’ll then sell to other scammers and expose you to identity theft.


• Pay an upfront fee to claim your prize (that doesn’t exist)


• An overseas relative has left you their fortune! ! A scammer, disguised as a lawyer or bank, emails you saying that a long-lost relative has died and left you a huge inheritance. How many of us know our distant relatives? They can be convincing too, with ancestry and genealogy websites making your family tree readily available.
  

  Scammers rip you off by getting you to:

• Send personal documents and bank details, which they’ll then sell to other scammers or use for identify fraud.


• Pay fees and taxes to release the inheritance (that doesn’t really exist).


• 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.

• Spoof / fraudulent email or web site: One of the biggest threats to the security of your Gumtree account is fraudulent email and Web sites, called spoof email and spoof Web sites. Spoof emails look like real Gumtree emails and include links to "phishing" web sites. While these phishing web sites may also look like Gumtree, they are fake sites designed by scammers to steal your Gumtree user name and password.

  Both are used to obtain personal and account information.

  You can keep your Gumtree account secure by only signing in to Gumtree when your web browser tells you the page is secure:

  

  

  Never sign in unless these icons show up in your browser and the web address starts with https://secure.gumtree.sg/

  Report all suspicious email addresses and web sites here and select subject line (Report > Spoof email or website), make sure you copy and paste the email communication received in its entirety to the ticket you are logging, if it is easier forward on all suspicious email addresses and web sites directly to spoof@gumtree.sg

  If you are unsure please contact the support staff and they will be happy to help you.

  Tips:
  -Don’t respond to emails from people or organisations that you aren’t familiar with.
  -Don’t open downloads or follow links in emails. If you know the company, type their home URL into the browser.
  
  

• Oops, I paid you too much! 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.



Tips:

• If you receive an overpayment cheque or money order, return it to the sender and ask for the correct amount.


• Wait for cheques to clear and cash in money orders before sending your product.


• 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.

Tips:

• Only transact face to face on Gumtree.


• Make a fortune, 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.

Tips:

• Legitimate jobs don’t ask for upfront joining or membership fees.


• Often it’s the people you trust, your friends and family, that will be trying to recruit you. They usually don’t realise that what they’re doing is illegal.


• 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.

Tips:

• This is illegal - don’t participate.


• 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:

  • Know the Scams - great information on a wide range of online and offline scams produced by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs - Manatu Kaihokohoko (although this is a New Zeland site it should be useful for our Singapore Gumtree users).
  • Get Safe Online - is an online safety guide with top 10 safety tips – well worth checking out.

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  Abuse / harassment

  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 have any other security questions that aren't answered above, then please contact us.