Caller: Scammer: Calls himself Michael on Gumtree; Could be Christopher

This thieving turd scammed me through a Wanted ad I placed on Gumtree for an auto transmission. I'm usually pretty careful with things like this but not careful enough this time. He was pretty slick and said all the right things to make me feel confident to go ahead. I should not have been so confident, I should have slept on it overnight and done some checks, starting with THIS great Reverse Aust Phone site. Because it was only after I had transferred the money, that I checked the number he had called me on and someone on this site said he was a Gumtree scammer!!!

There are HEAPS of scammers on Gumtree who answer Wanted ads and say they have the item, might even say they will send them for free, take your money through your internet transfer and of course they don't have the items, so you have been conned

This guy went by the Gumtree name of "Michael" and said the transmission was his Dad's who was in Melbourne and who worked as truckie and that it was sitting on a pallet ready to go. He ("Michael") said he worked at a chemist warehouse and could use his company's courier account (Aramex) to send the pallet pretty cheaply (ie $86.10 was the amount he gave but he was "generous" and made it a nice round $80. Plus the transmission cost of $500.

He called me from this other phone number: 0413 939 521 which was disconnected the next day. (I tried to call it). He is an Australian. Yes these scum are around. Said he was in Box Hill (Vic) and would go to his Dad's place in Melbourbe and pack it up and get it picked up by his work and send it to the Aramex depot in Perth, where I live.

I was gullible and fell for it, I even put in an extra $10 and said to them to have some beers, since the lockdown had ended in Vic. So I lost $590. Not an insignificant amount.

Just be wary that there are so many thieves and low life losers around, most gumtree scammers are not very bright or courteous but this one was smart and said all the right things to gain my trust. He wanted me to deposit the money into a phone number, but I said I would only do a bank to bank transfer. And I said a few times that I was wary of scammers and he told me during the phone call that he had been scammed out of $900 for some concert tickets!! All these things to gain my trust. If the truth be known, it was probably him who also used the concert ticket scam and did it to someone else! Anyway, after I did the transfer (too late now), I checked the account numbers he gave me and it was for a "mobile" bank of CBA, so no fixed branch. He could have been anywhere, could have called me from anywhere in Australia, even from up the road, or from another country. Although checking my phone records, looks like he was in Australia somewhere.