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Jobs on Gumtree. How do I know if they are scams?

I have been searching for jobs on Gumtree. It's a great site and has a number of jobs that seem appropriate for me. However I am reluctant to apply for any because I think they might be scams. It looks like you apply for jobs by clicking 'reply to this ad' and attaching a copy of your CV. My CV has details like address, phone number, email which I am worried that they may harvest this information, send adverts through the post or worst of all harrass me mentally or physically.

My mum isn't sure. My dad says it's fine to apply for most things there as long as you don't give bank details or give anyone money. I need to apply for jobs or else the Job Centre may take my benefits away. Gumtree looks like a good place to apply for jobs if I know they won't scam me.

What should I do? Please help!

Reply 1

katles

Whenever I'm on Gumtree I always email them first to check if they've sold something/offered a place already. This way, you could also get some contact with them before revealing anything personal. You could also ask for a phone number and talk to them on the phone about your interest in applying just to check whether they sound professional and legit. Also, you could ask for their exact address if you don't know it or their company name and google it to see if they have some sort of website or any sort of information that would imply they're a proper company/business.

Reply 2

AliceStrawbs

Take off any personal information other than your email address. If you're worried and you're invited to an interview take someone else with you make sure it's legit :smile:

Obviously if they ask for you for money run a mile and be dubious of the "modelling" work haha.

Reply 3

snowman77

Original post by katles

If they don't give an email, phone number or address, what should I do? A lot of the adverts on the site do this so I don't know if these are legitimate or not.

Reply 4

snowman77

Original post by AliceStrawbs

Take off any personal information other than your email address. If you're worried and you're invited to an interview take someone else with you make sure it's legit :smile:

Obviously if they ask for you for money run a mile and be dubious of the "modelling" work haha.

In other words are you saying I should attach a copy of my CV but don't include my name, house address and phone number? Would this be ok or would you take any further precautionary measures?

Thanks for the heads up on the modelling! All the modelling work has been advertised for females anyway! :tongue:

Reply 5

cardine92

Read the job description, if it says promo or sales where it's based on commission it's probably a scam where you'll work for hours on end for peanuts. If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is. If it has a clear description like 'part time waitress required 10 hours per week at vegan cafe in Hove' then it sounds fairly legit, I've had two temp jobs I found on Gumtree and they were fine.

I also second the modelling comment, stay the hell away!

Reply 6

Madmachine

Once I applied for a job on gumtree and received a reply email a couple of days which said I had to buy the "boss" dinner for £10 during my "interview". If you're going to scam someone at least try and make it believable.

Reply 7

SneakyDoug

Someone I knew put up a pretend job in Magaluf as a barman in the summer with my other friends number for the contact. Within a day he had 105 calls enquiring about the job haha. So i'd watch out some are pranks!

Reply 8

AliceStrawbs

Original post by snowman77

Oh no, you should include your name, but if you're really that wary of being scammed just leave it as your name and email address :smile:

Personally i'd just contact them first to say that you're interested and maybe ask for extra details.

Reply 9

Kj91

There is really no way of telling apart from contacting the employer. I avoid the ads with cheesy sayings such as 'We're hiring not firing' since its probably a rubbish commision based job. Last time I checked as well there was also a lot of catalogue delivery jobs which probably pay next to nothing. These jobs are also rampant on indeed as well. Its kind of annoying.

Reply 10

Tinberry

I understand where youre coming from as I have also spend hours searching gumtree for jobs and half dont even give details of what the job actually is or where, just call frank on ..... or reply to ad. :/ its very frustrating.

Reply 11

eni666

hi i recently just got an interview from a place on gumtree they told me to come in tommorw but im scared do u think this is modeling work or nt like i looked at the postcode they sent me nd it looks like a really nice building but it says u cn rent offices do u fink its a diffret type of modeling

Reply 12

eni666

Original post by eni666

im scared nd my mom wont come

Reply 13

valif

Be careful, i received few our ago the best a contract for as job I have never been interviewed!!!
They started saying that they were looking for people urgently, to send them your CV and personal text just to get to know more about yourself. Few days later I got the job without interview. I got excited at the beginning, then I thought there was something weird about it, it was too good to be true. So I started my researches on internet about the company, phone numbers etc... I even called the number they gave me to check if it was an active number but of course it wasn't. What made me think about a scam was that they asked me about a Basic Background Screening, that I could request just sending an email to an email address they gave me (of course), saying to pay the amount of money necessary to get the paper and then send them the receipt so they could provide for a refund with my first salary. That's even more suspicious cause usually is your employer that provides to request a DBS check or a Basic Background Screening if they are really interested... So be careful, there are so many disgusting people out there that just take advantage of people looking for jobs. What kind of world is this? I am genuinely disgusted, I tried to contact someone on gumtree to report the advert but I couldn't do anything. Hope people will realize on time what is all about.

Reply 14

susanneah

me too. I'm wondering exactly the same things, though I'm really old!. I found what looked like a great info site but as soon as I started reading it through, is crashed my computer (it was the real thing, then?) and now it won't open again. I hope you have more luck