Scam Prevention
PeopleField.org and How We Fight Scams
We’re here to do our best in creating a local, successful, system where people can exchange goods and services with others in their community. Part of that process is to continue to evolve PeopleField with new features that fight scams, and to educate about some common scams that exist with online classifieds.
PeopleField Scam Prevention By Being Local
At our core, PeopleField is a local exchange system – that means when buying or selling you meet the person you are making the transaction with.
We focus on helping people exchange goods with others in their own city, and people contacting you from another city or part of the world should be thought of as high risk to do business with. Exchanging through the mail opens up a lot more opportunity for scams. If a person wants to buy your goods or services through the mail, this is a good indication it could be a scam.
While meeting face-to-face with a person doesn’t eliminate risk, it does limit your risk, and limit the types of scams that you could face.
Common Scams
“Shipper Agent”
This is where a person offers you more than you are asking for – from anything from used software to a car and on up. The extra “money” is for you to pay someone else a Shipper Agent fee. The scam is that in your greed to pocket the extra money, you send them the goods through the mail. They send you a counterfeit or stolen check.. You are then out the product (you sent), with no money, and then on the hook for any bank fees associated with a bounced check.
“it sounds just a little strange that he would send me $2900 for a $600 car and that he would trust me to give the extra $2300 to his "shipper agent". Plus, that's way too much money to spend on this old beater of a car, especially considering that he has never seen the car”
“Check Clearing”
You receive a check in the mail for the value of your product. You cash the check and send to the person what you were selling. Because the check is from another county it takes upto a few weeks to for your bank to clear the check – telling you if there was money in the account or not. In this case, there was no money in the account, or it was a counterfeit check. In both cases, you’ve already sent the product!
Things to Think About
- As always, if it’s too good to be true – it’s a scam.
- If they want to pay you more than what your asking for – it’s a scam.
- If it’s not somebody in your own city you’ll meet face-to-face, be more careful.
- If you are selling something big – like a car – ask for a certified check and identification.
- Use a bill of sale.
- Scams play on greed, unusual circumstance, and making you think you're smarter then them. Avoid greed, helping out the "inconvenienced and hard up", and thinking that they're not bright enough to get a better deal somewhere else.
Final Thoughts
There are always people out there that make things a bit difficult – but based on the success and feedback we’ve gotten from users of PeopleField, this site works, it’s fun, and it’s a great way to meet new people in your city. We were told that putting up a scam fighting tips would drive people away from using the site. We think it will make your experience better.
Your feedback is always appreciated!
Stephen Cassady
Publisher
PeopleField.org
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