'Paysafe card' payment scam.

Hi,
I have just almost fell victim to a very cunning a seemingly legit scam, please read carefully as it could easily happen to you.
I found an ideal bike on gumtree, a 'Dolan Stryke' complete with Sram red, brand new for just £900, seemed like a bargain and also borderline too good to be true. I instantly contacted the seller and arranged to purchase it, he/she described that they would prefer not to use online payment methods such as Paypal and introduced me to a new method of payment called 'Paysafe card' ( http://www.paysafecard.com/uk/uk-paysafecard/ ) I read all about it on the website and decided I was happy to use this service, he/she stated that in order to make the payment I would buy a paysafe ticket from a local store, and I would be given a unique code, I would then send the code to a 'confirmation' email address, and paysafe would inform the seller that I have purchased the card. Then the seller would dispatch the item, and I will receive it and check it, then I can send the pin to the seller and he/she will receive payment. Initially it seemed legit, but when I saw the exact same bike and description on ebay for £2,000, I began to smell a rat.
After a bit of detective work, I found out that the 'confirmation' email was actually a third party address (ending in @safely-paysafecard.com), so if I had have emailed the unique pin containing £900 of my hard earned cash to this fake confirmation email, it would have gone directly to the seller, then he/she would instantly have access to my money with the only traceable element being an email address, so the money is as good as gone forever.
I have reported the gumtree ad and asked them to take it further, if that fails to happen I will take the liberty to do it myself.
The old internet saying of 'If its too good to be true, it probably is' springs to mind.
Sorry to ramble on a bit, but it could save you a lot of money, I was inches away from losing almost a grand...

Gumtree = cash on collection only

Gumtree = stolen goods

Gumtree = copy and paste the supplied phone number into the search bar. Tends to root out the rogues pretty quick.

Gumtree = first mistake

Bloody hell... They really are scraping the barrel for scams these days.

Only way I'd hand over £900 to a stranger on gumtree would be via a bankers draft given to them in person, that they then have to pay in to an account.

Then if anything went seriously wrong or it turned out the bike was nicked, the police or my bank would know the identity of the whoever cashed it.

Electronic/email payments can >>>>>>>>>

^ I think we get that.

Gumtree = cash on collection only

this

Gumtree = cash on collection only

And take a friend(s) and let someone know where you are going and why.

Bloody hell... They really are scraping the barrel for scams these days.

Only way I'd hand over £900 to a stranger on gumtree would be via a bankers draft given to them in person, that they then have to pay in to an account.

Then if anything went seriously wrong or it turned out the bike was nicked, the police or my bank would know the identity of the whoever cashed it.

Electronic/email payments can >>>>>>>>>

Bankers drafts are non reversible and normally not insured. You'd be better off using Paypal.

fixed

And take friend(s) in stab vests and let someone know where you are going and why.