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• Be careful with overseas sellers. Treidr is a local classifieds community, which helps you connect with local buyers or sellers and deal in an environment you are familiar with. Overseas sellers can be perfectly legitimate, although dealing with these may increase the risk and complexity of your business transaction. Remember that it is safest to deal only with local people, exchange information over the phone, meet face-to-face and pay in cash upon delivery of the goods/service. Do not pay with Western Union, Moneygram or other anonymous payment services.

• Unverifiable information. If people do not quote a phone number or physical location, they may have something to hide. If all communication is taking place over messenger chats and email exchanges, remember that you have no way of knowing who you are dealing with. Most fraudsters operate in this way to conceal their identity and schematically request foreign money transfers, advance payments, participation in investments, lottery draws etc. Learn more about common fraud schemes here: http://www.fbi.gov/majcases/fraud/fraudschemes.htm#nigerian

• Treidr.com is never involved in any transaction. This could mean that any seller that refers to a guaranteed transaction, payment handling, escrow services, buyer protection, seller certification etc should be approached with caution.

• Advance fee fraud. Be careful if you are requested to pay anything in advance. Examples of this may include requests to pay for shipping, brokerage, importing, booking fees, deposits etc. If the advertiser contacts you from a foreign country and requests that you send him or her money (typically to help them out of a tricky situation), then your alarm bells should be ringing by now! You can read more about advance-fee fraud here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_fraud

• Phishing. If you get an email or message that claims to be from Treidr.com, a bank, a payment services provider or any other company that urges you to disclose personal information such as account numbers, personal information, passwords - then don’t! Treidr.com or any other responsible service provider would never ask their customers for such information.

• Pyramid schemes. Ads that offer opportunities to work from home or participate in commission-based business opportunities can sometimes require you put down an initial payment to be allowed to participate or require you to recruit other members before you can make any money yourself. More often than not, you will just end up out of pocket if you participate in these schemes, hence why it’s best to stay clear of any involvement.

• Fake checks & Overpayment. Payments with checks can pose a risk for the seller because the check can be fraudulent or not have sufficient funds in the buyers’ bank account. Special care should be taken for checks that are issued for an amount greater than the price of the goods/services that is on offer, as the buyer is aware the check will not clear, so be careful not to provide the item/service beforehand. Always remember that the safest approach is to meet face-to-face and to arrange with the payment directly with cash in hand.

EXAMPLES OF COMMON ONLINE SCAMS

Fake items, pets or vehicles: This is where a fraudster asks for money in advance, often by creating a sense of urgency, and then plan on not shipping the item to you (advance fee fraud).

Work from home jobs: Someone offers you a work from home job or proposal, sends you a (fake) check so you can furnish your office, and then requests a payment from you to pay various equipment providers. After your payment, the equipment will never arrive and the check you were sent will bounce. Some scams might ask you to pay for up-front registration charges and not deliver any job in return to you (see advance fee fraud).

Electronics scams: This may be for brand new or expensive technology items. Similarly to the "fake items" situation above, the fraudster may ask for money in advance and not send the goods. Whilst many online dealers are legitimate, it is sensible to stay away from those sellers where you cannot verify their real location. Even better, meet face-to-face and pay in cash upon delivery of the items.

Fraudulent tenants: You are approached by someone who appears very keen to rent your apartment, and will send you a (fake) check only to shortly afterwards request repayment, because the person says that they have changed their mind. You send a repayment to the person, and will soon discover that the check you were sent will bounce, and your money will be lost.

YOUR SAFETY

• Take care when meeting someone for the first time. Make sure you meet in a public place and that you have told someone where you are going. It’s a good idea to meet locally, and also bring a cell phone or a friend with you.

• Protect your personal information. Take care never to give out your banking information or credit card details. Similarly, you should not give out information about yourself such as your social security number, residential address or any other kind of personal information about you or your family.

You can learn more about personal safety online at the following pages:

http://getsafeonline.org

http://wiredsafety.org

REPORT ABUSE

Do report to us any suspicious activity you have spotted, as this helps us keep Treidr.com a safe and secure site. Just provide a copy of the relevant details to abuse@treidr.com and be sure to include the URL (web link) and ad number (item #) in your message.

If you have received an abusive or potentially fraudulent email from someone outside of this site, we recommend that you make the email provider aware as well (Hotmail, Yahoo etc).

If you have been a victim of abuse or a scam, please report it to us and we will take appropriate action. We also recommend that you report the incident to your local police department.

You may also find the following resources useful:

http://www.ic3.gov

http://www.fraud.org

http://www.lookstoogoodtobetrue.com