Safety Guidelines
- Tips for everyone
- Email communication
- Buyer guide
- Seller guide
Tips for everyone.
“Do it in person and do it in public.”
If you follow this mantra, you should be safe. But sometimes a scammer will have a convincing scam up their sleeve, which is why you should also follow these additional precautions. Be extra cautious of people who make up reasons for why they suddenly can’t meet in person and pressure you to decide fast, especially if shipping to a foreign country is involved.
- Don’t send money to someone you haven’t met in person
- through Western Union or Moneygram
- through wire transfer
- through Paypal unless they are a verified Paypal member or they have a positive online reputation (note: contrary to popular belief, Paypal will not reimburse you if you don’t receive your item unless you were buying an eligible item directly on eBay — so don’t assume that a Paypal payment makes everything safe)
- to foreign countries
- Don’t fall for fake protection programs.
- There is no service provided by Oodle, Paypal, or Facebook, that “holds the payment until the item was shipped”. There are escrow services out there, but scammers sometimes pretend to be one, so you should research an escrow service and its reputation before using one.
- eBay does have a Vehicle Protection Program, but only for items purchased directly on eBay.
- Oodle does not provide a “Bill of Sale” or any other transaction assistance.
- Read more in our Buyer Guide
- Beware of checks. It takes a few weeks for your bank to notify you that you deposited a fake check. It’s best to go to the bank with the buyer and get a cashier’s check issued in person.
- Never accept extra payment with complicated excuses.
- Never send a portion of the money back to the buyer, a shipping agent, or any other person.
- Read more in our Seller Guide
Job Seekers
- Don’t accept checks sent to you for purposes other than salary.
- Don’t trust any scheme where you have to send money to someone, or buy goods from some specific place.
Renters
- Never send or accept any payment before seeing the place and meeting the landlord.
Email communication
As a new tool to protect the users of site on the Oodle network, including Marketplace on Facebook, Oodle implemented a proprietary email anonymization service. Whenever an interested user starts a conversation with someone who posted an ad on our network, both of them are assigned an anonymized email address that looks something like this: 123456b123456@souqplus.com. Doing this provides an additional layer of protection from fraud.
Here are some frequently asked questions about this system:
Why do I see things like [email blocked] or XXX@XXX.com in my emails?
Scammers often try to get around our safety system by asking you to contact them directly. If they put their address in the message, we will try to hide it.
What do I do if the other person insists that I contact them directly at their personal email address?
They might be a scammer. Usually, there should be no reason for you to have to contact them directly.
What do I do if I really need to give the other person my personal email address?
There are some rare cases where you might legitimately need to give the other person your email address. We recommend that you give them your address through the phone or after you met them in person.
How do I report a suspicious message?
If you think the other person is doing something suspicious, you can forward their email to fraud@souqplus.com and our automated tools will analyze the message.
