“The seller of this auction is not legitimate and has been removed from Trade Me,” it said. “The listing was created by a scammer, not a genuine Trade Me member. If you've paid any money to this person please contact your bank immediately.”

He contacted his bank, who told him that the number he had been given was an overseas money transfer service operated by ANZ.

“BNZ contacted ANZ to stop payment and I was fortunate the overseas transfer hadn’t been made and I recovered the money.”

“We're left in the dark as to how the scammer obtained the Trade Me account login credentials and how Trade Me was alerted to the scam. I'm grateful to Trade Me for alerting me so I didn't incur a financial loss but the loss of privacy and the inconvenience still annoys me. Why won't Trade Me tell me what happened?”

He says Trade Me gave him insufficient information about what happened.

Trade Me policy and compliance manager James Ryan says he could not comment on individual cases.

“Scammers are becoming more sophisticated and their methods more complex, which is why it’s never been more important to be vigilant and use trusted platforms,” he said.

“We have advanced systems and a dedicated NZ-based team to keep our site safe, and we're constantly looking at new ways we can protect our members. Sadly, however, there are some devious people online who will try to steal or scam people out of their money.”

He says members should use Ping or Afterpay because means the buyer protection policy applies and the payment can be tracked.

”If you get contacted by one of these scammers, or are suspicious that you might be dealing with one, contact our team and we’ll take a look”