Gumtree Australia Support Knowledgebase - Safety - Fruit picking and farming job scams
Homepage-Icon-SVGs Homepage-Icon-SVGs Homepage-Icon-SVGs Homepage-Icon-SVGs Homepage-Icon-SVGs
Experiencing technical issues? Please update your app or browser to the latest version. If this doesn't help, find more details here
Stay safe from scams: Keep all chats within Gumtree Messenger. Scammers may ask to move to WhatsApp or SMS and send fake payment links. Gumtree never arranges payments or deliveries outside our platform. Find more tips here

Fruit picking and farming job scams



We’ve recently had reports of a job scam involving fruit picking and other related farming jobs. These ads are targeting backpackers and are offering employment and accommodation for an up-front fee. If you’ve seen or responded to such ads please report it to us immediately and cease communication with the advertiser.

How to protect yourself - Please ignore any job offer that:

  • Asks you for up-front fees
  • Offers you free accommodation
  • Offers a guaranteed job and or income
  • Offers quick visa approval and sponsored employment in Australia 
  • That advertises harvesting, the picking of fruits or vegetables, in the wrong season ie. picking summer fruits in winter
  • Will only provide a post office box as the contact address 

Please note: This is not a definitive list of indicators of a scam. Some brazen scammers will provide a real street address, but the people living at that address have nothing to do with the scam.
You can also conduct a simple ‘WHOIS’ or Google search on the organisation that will allow you to see when the URL for the website was set up – if it was only recently established then it is potentially fake.
Any further questions please contact us and we can help out.