Scam or a steal
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If there's any scams to be seen it's certainly on Gumtree.
I remember a while back seeing a high-end full carbon road (racing) bike, unused apparently and for an absolute fraction of the new price, which would have cost several thousand pounds. I had a bit of fun winding the fool up who was clearly a thieving Nigerian. My suspicions were certainly proved accurate after the seller positively confirmed several of my questions, i.e. Is it a fast bike? Does it come with a bell? Is a shopping basket fitted? Is the shopping basket carbon fibre and the latest aerodynamic shape as used by Mark Cavendish in the 2012 Tour de France? Does the bike come with a puncture repair kit? Is it possible for me to fit my stabilizers to the bike?, etc. etc.

The bike sounds like a dream machine as the seller answered yes to every question thrown at them, and there were certainly quite a few
, until I got bored of winding him up.
I remember a while back seeing a high-end full carbon road (racing) bike, unused apparently and for an absolute fraction of the new price, which would have cost several thousand pounds. I had a bit of fun winding the fool up who was clearly a thieving Nigerian. My suspicions were certainly proved accurate after the seller positively confirmed several of my questions, i.e. Is it a fast bike? Does it come with a bell? Is a shopping basket fitted? Is the shopping basket carbon fibre and the latest aerodynamic shape as used by Mark Cavendish in the 2012 Tour de France? Does the bike come with a puncture repair kit? Is it possible for me to fit my stabilizers to the bike?, etc. etc.


The bike sounds like a dream machine as the seller answered yes to every question thrown at them, and there were certainly quite a few


Definite scam. Think about it: if you were short of cash would you be selling your new-in-box 5D Mark III and 24-105mm f/4L for 800 quid? You’d have to be singularly daft to do that.
The camera wasn’t stolen, it simply doesn’t exist.
Some warning signs:
• photo isn’t of the actual item being sold (this is even more significant now than it used to be, because everyone has a phone with a camera)
• lens isn’t mentioned in the subject. No real seller would omit such an important element
• littered with typos
• the SEO-friendly title, obviously taken from an online shop, would rarely be used by a personal seller, and the specific wording with the bizarre spelling ‘Blacko’ has been used in several other deleted auctions on Gumtree and elsewhere, i.e. the guy’s a serial fraudster
• anniversary gifts don’t come with the junk included in this package, e.g. universal battery charger, gadget bag, compact tripod. Package deals on e-commerce sites do. This one came from Currys
• claims to be a woman, since people trust women more. Always a warning sign in combination with other risks
Don’t be a sucker.
The camera wasn’t stolen, it simply doesn’t exist.
Some warning signs:
• photo isn’t of the actual item being sold (this is even more significant now than it used to be, because everyone has a phone with a camera)
• lens isn’t mentioned in the subject. No real seller would omit such an important element
• littered with typos
• the SEO-friendly title, obviously taken from an online shop, would rarely be used by a personal seller, and the specific wording with the bizarre spelling ‘Blacko’ has been used in several other deleted auctions on Gumtree and elsewhere, i.e. the guy’s a serial fraudster
• anniversary gifts don’t come with the junk included in this package, e.g. universal battery charger, gadget bag, compact tripod. Package deals on e-commerce sites do. This one came from Currys
• claims to be a woman, since people trust women more. Always a warning sign in combination with other risks
Don’t be a sucker.