We've heard from some of our users that recently there have been emails going around that claim to be from Gumtree. These emails say something along the lines of "Gumtree Registration Suspension" or "You've Won a Car!".  

Gumtree will never ask you to confirm your bank or credit card details. We also won't ask you to confirm your account details after you've registered by retyping your password into the site. 

A common strategy by fraudsters is to make it look like an email is coming from a reliable source and ask you for sensitive personal details. They'll provide a link to a site that looks almost identical to Gumtree and ask you to log in. Once you've entered your account information the fraudsters have got it. 

If you did click the link in one of these dodgy emails and follow through with your login information, please change your Gumtree password right away. If you use the same password for other websites or services we would suggest changing those passwords as well. 

If you receive an email that looks suspicious and is asking you for account details, the best bet is to go directly to the website and log in from there, rather than any links in the email itself. 

You can also easily check where an email is really coming from. Any emails sent to you by Gumtree will come from an "@gumtree.com" or "@mail.gumtreemail.co.za" email address. Fraudsters will "mask" their email addresses and can make it look like the message is being sent by Gumtree so it's important to check the source of the message if you're not sure.

If you use Gmail - open the message and click on the down arrow beside the reply button and click "show original". 

If you use Apple Mail - open the message and click "view" then "message" and then "all headers".

If you use Outlook or Hotmail - open the message and click "actions" then "view message source". 

If you use Thunderbird - open the message and click "view" then "headers" then "all".  

If you use Yahoo - open the message and click "full headers" below the email.
​
Once you've opened up the source information you'll be able to see the email address used to send the message. If the message was sent by anything other than "@mail.gumtree.co.za" please let us know right away. You can delete the email and you can "report" the email as being spam to your email service. 

We've got lots of information on how to stay safe on the site and the kinds of scams you should watch out for that we suggest that everyone have a look at it. 

As always, if there's anything you're not sure about or you're feeling suspicious about an email you've received or an ad you've seen please contact us here and we'll be more than happy to help.