Cheap GPX 4500

This 4500 is advertised on Gumtree for $1720, I think its a scam. What do you guys think?

Cheers Kev


url=https://servimg.com/view/17477758/27][/url]

there's been a few shonkies on gumtree this year. if there's a phone number, give it a try. I checked one out earlier this year only to be told (by an irate lady) that she was getting sick and tired of the calls and she wasn't selling anything.
maybe the phone number had been posted wrong but once gumtree had been advised, the add got pulled and it was never posted again. makes you wonder why it was never reposted.
I realize that not all adverts are suspect but to give my response to this one, a 4500 for $1720 ?? hmmmmm no thanks.

I would bet my left nut that it is either a scam or a dud detector, there's been quite a few on Gumtree and EBay recently, these twits have never learnt that the first thing that gives the game away to anyone in the know is the ridiculous price, but they keep doing it so it must be working on some people new to the game looking for a bargain  

Had a conversation with a bloke one day who was thinking about getting a detector, anyway he asked me what I thought he could get a gpx4000 for and when I said probably somewhere around $3500 he laughed and told me that he could get one for half that price on the internet (prob Alibaba) or something ,anyway after five minutes of trying to explain to him that it would be a replica from china or turkey or whatever it occurred to me that I was wasting my breathe as he was not having any of it, in the end I just left it at that. 

Sometimes you just cant protect people from themselves can you, anyway if he did buy one that way he will work it our for himself eventually I guess  

au-fever

Yes how true Au fever, I checked Gumtree this morning and the cheap 4500 has been removed from the for sales. 

bloody scammers , I don't own a detector and just hire for the time being. the plan was to find a bit off gold to help pay for a decent s/hand machine. very slow process hahaha.
but the day I do purchase and if s/hand i'll be making sure they have a receipt from the place were they purchased and following up on that.
I think minelab have a serial number check thingy going on where you call a number and cross check the serial numbers.
you'd be bloody stupid not to check up on the detector you are about to purchase, and if you don't you must have to much bloody money.

it sux big time and we are not talking about a small amount of cash. i dont get it, why are these people not tracked down and done for fraud and locked up. try to rip off your bank by just a few hundred dollars and watch the fraud squad come down on you like a tonne of bricks. warnings are only good for those that read them and do the research on the serial numbers and security stickers. the naive excited beginner will get sucked in enough times to keep these mongrels in business. i too aussie18 am trying to save enough and find enough gold to buy a new machine but i dont think it will be off the internet at least not without seeing all the checks first.

One of the very worst things that happens in regards to "dodgy" detectors is that people who have been stung buying them, are then on selling them to others after they find out its a lemon, people don't just throw them in the bin where they belong, for obvious reasons they don't want to lose the money so try to recover it by on selling it to some other poor bunny:.12: 

The other thing is that some buyers are breaking the machines up and selling the bits and pieces as spare parts, so apart from complete units there are also dodgy coils, batteries and cables doing the rounds as well, from what I have heard not only are there are quite a few dodgy minelab models but also whites, garrett, and fisher detectors are being copied as well, and also coiltek coils.

So this has turned buying a machine into a veritable minefield for people who are not familiar with these machines, minelab introduced a security sticker for their machines and this too was copied, it can be verified as genuine by scanning as the copied sticker shows up differently, but to the eye the sticker looks the same.

The safest way I guess is to buy from a dealer, or ask someone who owns one of these machines to come along with you if you are looking at buying one if possible, with the 4500 and 5000, there are differences in the menu's layout and wording , the control box paint is a lighter colour blue, the harness is flimsy looking with more of a silvery colour to the fabric, and can have the same serial number on the control box that is on the coils, the later versions are a lot more like the originals than the early ones, from what I have found out they are coming from china and also turkey? and commonly sold on the Alibaba site getting sent here and then being re sold on gumtree and ebay etc.

Been watching the activities of these scammers and noticed that most tend to follow a similar pattern and so have concluded that this type of scamming is bigger than the odd person here and there trying their luck, it appears more orchestrated as a majority of them are following the same formula, from the methods they use to advertise the detectors (and other high dollar value goods) for sale to the methods used for collecting the money so it seems reasonable to assume that they are being tutored and given direction as to how to go about it, my guess would be that some of these sellers could be travellers or maybe students using this method to finance themselves, and that the information is likely being shared within the group.

The first warning is the price, if its too cheap then that's got to raise alarm bells, who would sell a $6500 detector for $1700?, nobody would, well maybe your missus if she finds out you've been messing about  ,

au-fever

Yeah too true. I don't know why they don't go after the sellers on Alibaba as they are generally the manufacturers. It shouldn't be to hard to catch them out and punish them. If they are protected by the Chinese government then that would surely be against some trade deals and what not. Soon they will be copying Porsche's too. I might get one of those though if the nuggets don't come thick and fast

Read this

http://www.minelab.com/aus/consumer/knowledge-base/news?article=178728

Robert

the Alibaba site is interesting, you can chat with them online as well. they are selling fake but advertised as a GPX5000 the image although distorted clearly shows the MINELAB name.
seems to me it should be easy to catch these people out selling counterfeit products, looks like the Chinese government are not really concerned.
http://au.alibaba.com/product/1082575572-High-Sensitivity-underground-gold-metal-detector.html
buyer beware.