When Ian Egerton was contacted by a bidder interested in buying all of his gym equipment, he thought he had struck gold.

Key points: Ian Egerton placed an ad for his gym equipment on Gumtree

Ian Egerton placed an ad for his gym equipment on Gumtree He was asked to buy Neosurf vouchers from a petrol station to pay for the removal of the gear

He was asked to buy Neosurf vouchers from a petrol station to pay for the removal of the gear Fair Trading says it is the first scam of this kind they've seen this year

The 61-year-old had just sold his 40-hectare property just outside Queanbeyan, New South Wales and was faced with the prospect of packing up a five-bedroom house — all while re-homing his livestock — in the space of just a few weeks.

He placed an advertisement on Gumtree to sell the gym equipment and was contacted by someone calling themselves Shirley Jackson who wanted to buy it all.

Scammers use complicated transactions to confuse

"I was absolutely inundated with requests, emails, Gumtree messages and telephone calls," Mr Egerton said.

"All the while I was trying to clean the walls and pack up the house."

Mr Egerton posted an ad on Gumtree for his weight machine and leg press. ( ABC News: Elle Conway )

When one of the advertisements caught the attention of someone purporting to be a woman based in Darwin, Mr Egerton was relieved.

"She said she was interested in the weight machine and leg press," he said.

"So I said: 'Well I've actually got some other gym equipment as well — an exercise bike, a rowing machine and a treadmill — would you like those as well?'"

Shirley Jackson agreed to purchase the lot, which came to a total of $1,400.

She then told Mr Egerton she would arrange for a removalist to pick up the equipment, which would cost $650.

He agreed, and when she claimed the removalist company would only accept Neosurf vouchers — a form of online payment using gambling tokens — he went along with it.

"I didn't know what they were," he said.

"But apparently you could buy them through service stations, according to this Shirley Jackson."

She then told Mr Egerton they would transfer the total amount, plus a $30 courtesy fee, into a Paypal account that would link to his bank details.

But she said she would not release the money until Mr Egerton had taken a photo of the Neosurf vouchers and sent them to verify that he had bought them.

"I provided my bank account details to this so-called Paypal team, which also sent me an email," he said.

"They had Paypal logos and copyright details and everything in the right colours, and I didn't even question the fact that this could be a scam."

Mr Egerton did what he was told, and sent her photos of the vouchers he had purchased from a nearby petrol station.

It was only when he spoke to his daughter about the interaction that he realised he had been duped.

"She said: 'Dad, didn't you realise that if you send them a photo of these vouchers they can use the code on the vouchers to take the money?'"

"I suddenly went from being excited about the sale to a panic that I'd lost the $650," he said.

'They caught me while I was vulnerable'

A New South Wales Fair Trading spokesperson said it was the first scam of this kind they had seen this year — where vouchers, coupons or gift cards were used to trick unsuspecting people.

The receipt for $650 that Mr Egerton took out to pay the online scammer. ( ABC News: Elle Conway )

But the department said gift cards were becoming the payment method of choice for online fraudsters.

"If consumers believe they have been scammed or have been the victim of cybercrime, they should stop all contact with the scammer and record any details about the scammer," the spokesperson said.

"This includes their telephone number, email and website address. These details can help detect scammers or stop ways in which scammers are contacting people."

Mr Egerton said he contacted the petrol station where he purchased the vouchers, and his bank, and also filed a report with Queanbeyan police.

He was contacted again by the company, asking for $750 worth of Neosurf vouchers to pay for insurance.

He said he had accepted he would probably never see his money again.

"I tried absolutely everything — I was at my wit's end to get my money back," he said.

"I can look back now at the emails now and say 'what a fool I was to believe this', but at the time I was doing a whole lot of stuff with moving and selling and packing up in a short time-frame.

"They caught me while I was vulnerable."