Scams, Scabs and Spam

[Nopatience]

What a great site this could be if only the scammers, scabs and spammers could be deterred from using it by having their ads removed immediately. No doubt I'm not the only one who is sick of the pathetic scams involving luxury cars at less than half price.

Now Malas Motors, a Sydney car dealer, thinks he can use Gumtree for free advertising and they are getting away with it. I thought it was for private advertisers and business could advertise as sponsors if they paid. The fact that ads stay up even after being reported does not discourage these people. I also know that it should be buyer beware, but when every second ad is fake or some form of scam, it makes it frustrating to use the site.

I've offered to voluntarily remove any ads which I identify as being illegal or spam, but I've heard nothing back on that offer. If a group was established with the rights to instantly remove ads, placing them offline and only to be re-posted if Gumtree admin is happy with the content, then the scammers, scabs and spammers would soon learn that this isn't the site for them. I don't think that there are enough resources within Gumtree to cope with all the ad reports, so therefore the work could be shared. It would be fighting fire with fire, fake ad, straight down. It works with graffiti and it would work here.