Care needs to be taken by those who choose to use the Gumtree Cape Town service online as there are often scams floating around and always scammers on the lookout to catch their next victim. We certainly recommend using the service and it is a fantastic place to find jobs or buy and sell stuff and even get involved and chat with others via the forums. We are simply saying take caution as we are aware of people who have been scammed and had attempted scammers approach us on different occasions.
One example of how easy it is to be scammed when using the Gumtree Cape Town service is in an instance where you have second hand goods for sale or an item to sell online. The scam artist will first reply to your classified ad posing as a potential buyer and may tell you that he or she is in a different area of South Africa, like Johannesburg for instance, asking if you would be prepared to courier the goods to them and they will be prepared to cover courier fees. They will request your bank account details so that they can make payment up front and they promise to forward you a proof of payment.
All ok so far except the proof of payment sent to you in the case where it is a scam attempt will be fraudulent. It is surprisingly easy to forge a completely real looking proof of payment that looks like it has genuinely come from ABSA, FNB, Nedbank or Standard Bank. DO NOT send any goods to a potential buyer on a proof of payment alone no matter how many times they contact you to try and hurry you up. Wait until the funds have cleared in the bank first, even this is risky so be extremely cautious and use some common sense. In actual fact, it is even more advisable to only sell second hand goods to people you can meet in person where a physical exchange of goods and money can take place. The staff at the Gumtree Cape Town service actually recommend this as the only way to transact.