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 tech issues? Update your app to the latest version. More details: Current technical issues & troubleshooting
Be wary of requests for your email address sent in an image format. Gumtree does not use a delivery service or Gumtree Bot. We will never send communication via text or Whatsapp. Click here for more help

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.