Tell the police to contact Gumtree if they need to investigate further. If you live in the UK, you can file an online report through Action Fraud. For more information, visit: https://www. actionfraud. police. uk/reporting-fraud-and-cyber-crime.
Pursuing legal action can be time-consuming and expensive. Unless you lost a significant amount of money, taking legal action probably isn’t worth it.
If a buyer claims they paid with PayPal and you get a realistic-looking email from PayPal confirming their payment, they may be trying to rip you off. Don’t hand over the item until you see the payment in your PayPal account. These scammers tend to target high-value items like gaming consoles, tablets, phones, laptops, motorcycles, and cars. [6] X Research source
Gumtree will never email or text you about updating account information immediately or threaten to close your account if you fail to comply with their email request.