Buying or selling your car online? Don’t get scammed!

How to trade online with Gumtree safely:

With a few online scams doing the rounds within the automotive sphere on popular classifieds sites, Jeff Osborne, Head of Automotive for Gumtree SA, says that they are constantly encouraging their users to trade safe via their site.

“We have partnered with an automotive third party service, Buy Safe Sell Safe or B3S, which is the evolution of what was once known as MotoFinn, to ensure that our users trade safe, especially when such large amounts of money are at stake”, says Osborne.

They pride themselves on creating a safe, secure and transparent process and they are able to do so with their industry leading partners – Deloitte, TransUnion, DEKRA, and of course, Gumtree SA.

Their services will assist you with a private sale via Gumtree as well as guarantee a willing buyer within seven days, including securing your pay-out administered by Deloitte. Their service includes your vehicle being DEKRA-tested and inspected as well as ownership certified by TransUnion. Your live Gumtree ad will then receive a DEKRA/AA-approved badge, along with eight professional photos (to load to your Gumtree ad) and two Gumtree ‘bump up’ ads per day in order to keep your ad current. B3S will handle all the paperwork, which includes contracts, payment, the transfer of ownership and licensing.

Also read: Did you know that you can renew your vehicle licence online?

“This process will not only secure the buying or selling of your vehicle, making it so much safer, but also reduce the amount of admin that goes into buying or selling a vehicle”, says Osborne.

Osborne further warns online traders about the following fraud watch-outs:

• Gumtree will never issue an invoice for payment, nor accept them.
• Gumtree does not and will not “hold” money on behalf of buyers or sellers. Sales on the site are concluded directly between the buyer and the seller or through our endorsed safe transacting partners, Shepherd for Goods and B3S for Autos.
• Neither Gumtree nor B3S will ever ask a buyer to deposit funds into a PayPal or Western Union account.
• If you have been scammed or are suspicious of an ad, report it to your nearest police station to open a case of fraud and submit the report to [email protected] in order to fill out a legal form and assist in tracking the scammer.

“We have processes in place to safeguard against scammers loading ads on our site, but largely rely on our community to report this type of suspicious activity”, continues Osborne. If you have picked up a potential scam or have any related concerns or queries, please contact Gumtree directly via their help desk on[email protected].

Gumtree Autos is the country’s busiest virtual automotive showroom, with an average of 1.4 million unique browsers each month so this partnership with B3S will not only ensure more traffic for your car’s ad but, will also put buyers’ and sellers’ minds at ease when transacting.

Source: Gumtree