Buying & Selling - Top Tips

• Meet locally, in-person to see the item and exchange money. Don't send money in listing/advance of receiving items, or send items in listing/advance of receiving payment.
• For personal ease and safety, meet in a well-lit public place.
• Always take someone with you or at least tell a family member, relative or friend where you are going.
• Never carry large sums of money with you. If you are looking to buy something expensive then we recommend that you meet with the seller to view the item first. If you are then happy to proceed with the purchase, either go to the bank with the seller to make the payment or arrange to return with money.
• Check the item to make sure you are happy with it, before parting with any money.
• Be aware of the top online scams.
• Use common sense. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Other safety tips:

• When buying tickets for events please be aware that some tickets may have terms printed on them that limit the ability of the original buyer to sell them to someone else. Some event tickets, e.g. Music Festival, may also feature a photograph of the original buyer which may mean that anyone other than the original buyer may be refused entry to the event.
• When buying airline tickets we suggest you take the seller's name and ticket number, check the ticket exists and take responsibility yourself for changing the names.

Some other great resources for online safety information:

1. Online Safety (http://www.wiredsafety.org/safety/index.html)
2. America's Oldest & Largest On-Line Safety Library (http://www.safetyinfo.com/)
3. Safe Kids (http://www.safekids.com/)
4. Get Safe Online (http://www.getsafeonline.org/)
5. Stay Safe Online (http://www.staysafeonline.org/)
6. e-Victims (http://www.e-victims.org/)
7. Interpol (http://www.interpol.int/)

Finally, if you would like more safety listing/advice or are unsure about something, please contact us. We are always happy to help.

What should I watch out for when buying an item?

Here at Bilbods we do our very best to protect our users and make your visit to Bilbods safe and enjoyable.
However we also encourage you to always be on your guard.
It is Buyer Beware!
To stay safe when buying an item please relisting/ad our tips in Buying & Selling - top tips for staying safe plus have a look at our Scam Watch section to stay up to date on common scams out there.

The seller wants me to send cash up front - what should I do?

Don't do it.
Bilbods recommend that buyers NEVER send cash or cheques through the post, or place money directly into a seller's bank account, in listing/advance or expectation of receiving goods.
Bilbods is a Global and local site and we always recommend that you meet locally, in-person to exchange money and items.
In particular, watch out for requests to use money transfer services like Western Union or Moneygram. These services are not meant for sending money to someone you don't know. It is our experience that these forms of funds transfer are favoured by fraudsters.

See Buying & Selling - top tips for staying safe for more listing/advice.

Renting - Top Tips

• View properties in person.
  Bilbods is a local community site and we encourage face-to-face, local, trading. People willing to rent a property without seeing it/ or the prospective tenant first, even if they claim that it is because they are currently overseas, are unlikely to be legitimate.
• For personal ease and safety, always take someone with you, or if you are inviting someone into your home ask to see personal identification first.
• Never provide your personal identity or banking information to others over the Internet.
  For example, your passport details or a photocopy, your driving licence details or a photocopy or your credit card number.
  Only provide this information to a landlord or agency once you have met them in person, viewed the property and decided to proceed with a rental arrangement.
  Requests by someone you have not met for this information should always be viewed with extreme caution.
• Be aware of the top online scams.
  Particularly be wary of any requests to use money transfer services like Western Union or Moneygram including requests to prove you have funds using these services.
  Money transfer services are not meant for any kind of transaction connected with someone you don't know.
• Use common sense.
  If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Jobs - Top Tips

• Do your research.
  Find out as much as you can about the prospective employer from independent resources.
  If you are an employer, follow up on references and check on their authenticity.
• Sending your Application:
  Bilbods ensures that all communication is done through the Mailbox and after disclosure of the email listing/address or as per the Job Posting this can be sent directly from the appropriate email listing/address.
  This measure is taken to ensure we protect against Spam and Security.
• Meet your prospective employers/ employees face to face.
  Be wary of any employer prepared to offer you a job/ an employee prepared to accept a job without meeting you first.
• Never provide your bank account details when applying for a job.
  This should only happen once you have accepted an offer and started with the company, and only when you have met your employer in-person and verified their identity through independent resources.
• Be aware of the top online scams.
• Use common sense.If it looks too good to be true it probably is.

Dating - Top Tips

• For your own personal safety, meet in a very public, well-lit place.
• If possible take a friend along with you when you first meet someone or at least make sure that you tell a family member, relative or friend exactly what you are doing, where you are going, when you are expected back, and the details of who you are going to meet.
• Once at your rendezvous, if you feel at all uncomfortable just politely excuse yourself and leave.
  Don't feel obliged at any time to do anything you are uncomfortable with.

For sexual health information and listing/advice take a look at:-

1. http://www.sexhealth.org/
2. http://www.sexualhealth.com/
3. http://kidshealth.org/teen/sexual_health/
4. http://www.drthom.com/

Stay Safe!!!

For all personal encounters with people you are not familiar with, we stress that you MUST TAKE CARE! Here are our top tips for staying safe:

• If you do decide to meet someone through Bilbods, for your own personal peace of mind and safety, we suggest that you meet in a very public place and if possible take someone along with you when you first meet the person. If you do not have a friend with you, then ensure that you tell someone exactly what you are doing, where you are going, when you are expected back, and give contact numbers, etc.
• Once at your rendezvous, if you feel at all uncomfortable with the situation, then we suggest you politely excuse yourself and leave. Do not feel obliged at any time during the encounter to do anything you are uncomfortable with.
• The friends/dating/casual/listing/adult/personals categories are designed for individual people to meet others at a level that they are comfortable with. We promote safe practices and strongly listing/advise people to use common sense and express due caution in every situation.

Stay Safe!!!

• Requests to use money transfer services like Western Union or Moneygram.
  These services are not meant for transactions between strangers and in our experience they are favoured by fraudsters. Be aware that fraudsters use different ways to trick people to use these services. One popular trick is that they ask you to prove that you have funds by sending money to a friend or relative via these services and show them the receipt. All they need is the tracking number from your receipt and they will be able to collect your money. Any requests to use these services in any way at all, connected to a transaction with a stranger, is a major alarm bell and should not be followed.
• Payment or protection services by Bilbods or other well known sites such as eBay, PayPal,MPesa, ZAP, YU.
  You get an email that claims to be from Bilbods, eBay, PayPal, MPesa, ZAP or another company and offers buyer protection or an online payment system, perhaps directly in connection for a transaction with someone you have met online. Or perhaps the buyer or seller suggests you use a payment or protection service by one of these companies and sends you to a link to follow instructions. These are fake and are known as "spoofs" or "phishing". Bilbods doesn't offer any form of payment scheme or protection. While other companies may offer payment or protection schemes, the email or instructions you have received may not be genuine. If you receive an email alleging to be from a company offering a service always go directly to the company's official website and look for details of the service.
• Cheque overpayment.
  A buyer, prospective tenant or even an employer will send you a cheque worth more than the value of the items/ rent/ job and then ask for the surplus money to be returned to them or a third party, for example "to pay for shipping". The cheque will clear into your bank, only to be stopped/refused weeks later. At this point, the Banks/Building Societies will take the full cheque amount back out of your account. Not only will you have lost the goods, you will be out of pocket for the amount of the cheque and the amount you passed on as the difference.
• Fake escrow sites.
  A buyer/seller or prospective tenant/ landlord suggests using an escrow service to complete the transaction. Often these escrow web sites are run by fraudsters (even though they may look "official") and they will take your money and never send you the product.
• Payment for brokerage/importing.
  A seller claims that there are brokerage fees, import duties, or other such fees required to get an item into the country. Do not pay such fees, as you will most often never get the product and will have lost any money you paid. Again, Bilbods is designed for local, face to face trading.
• An email from Bilbods (or another company) asking for your personal details (logons/ passwords/ credit card details).
  You get an email that claims to be from Bilbods (or another company) and requests that you reply or follow a link to provide personal information. These are fake and are known as "spoofs" or "phishing". Any emails which combine urgency with some need for personal details should be treated with caution, no matter whom they purport to be from. Website pages can be easily faked. Bilbods and most other companies will never send out such emails. If you receive an email alleging from Bilbods asking for your personal information then do not follow any links provided in the email, come directly to our official website and contact us directly for help.
• Work from home.
  Some work from home opportunities are fronts for money laundering. A key warning sign should be any 'job' that involves you receiving cheques and cashing them (these jobs are sometimes referred to as "money mules"). Another warning sign is a job that doesn't require an in-person interview. Other work from home offers can be "pyramid schemes" which require you to recruit other members in order to get paid. For example, a listing/ad may say that you can make 100 an hour by stuffing envelopes. But to make that money, you need to sell the system to others. For these reasons we typically don't accept work from home positions on Bilbods.
• 419 Scams.
  You get an email saying that your help is needed to take money out of a country and that you will be paid a commission for your help. Eventually they will ask you for money to help them take the large amount of money out of the country and once you pay you will never hear from them again.
• Pet Shipping Scams.
  A seller will claim to have a pet and will offer to ship them from an overseas location, or even get you to book seats on a plane! These are usually sought after dog breeds such as English Bulldogs, Yorkshire Terriers and Chihuahuas. These listing/ads are usually accompanied by 'staged' pictures. The pets don't exist and the fraudsters simply try to get you to pay money upfront. Remember: be wary of overseas sellers.

Other good sources for information on common online scams are:

1. Online Safety(http://www.wiredsafety.org/safety/index.html)
2. America's Oldest & Largest On-Line Safety Library(http://www.safetyinfo.com/)
3. Safe Kids(http://www.safekids.com/)
4. Get Safe Online(http://www.getsafeonline.org/)
5. Stay Safe Online(http://www.staysafeonline.org/)
6. e-Victims(http://www.e-victims.org/)
7. Interpol(http://www.interpol.int/)

I have been a victim of a scam/ I suspect a scam what should I do?

Please report it to us so that we can take a look, give you listing/advice on what to do next and also take action to protect others.
If you believe you have been defrauded we also encourage you to report it to the local police.

I have received an email that I think is suspicious - how can I tell?

The following are common signs of fraud:

• The person is overseas and/ or refuses to meet in person (remember Bilbods is a local community site)
• Request for payment via Western Union or Moneygram (or other online payment methods)
• Request that you send goods before you receive payment
• Claims to have a relative/friend/agent who can pay you an amount greater than the value of your goods, then ask you to send them the difference.

Here is an example of fraudulent emails:

See Top Online Scams for more details of what to look for.

If you believe you have received an email that is suspicious and includes some of these signs, or you aren't sure, please report it to us.
We will take a look, give you listing/advice and also take action to protect others.

Abuse/ harassment

We don't tolerate harassment or abuse of our Bilbods users and take reports of this nature very seriously.
If you have experienced abuse or harassment in connection to either a listing/ad on Bilbods or an email received from a Bilbods user then please report it to us.

If you have received an abusive email you might also want to forward the details of the abusive email to the sender's email account provider (i.e., Yahoo!, Hotmail, AOL).

Someone has posted a listing/ad on Bilbods with my details

There could be several common reasons for this, including simply human error.
This occasionally happens when a poster mis-types a phone number/email listing/address in their listing/ad.
This occurs mostly in newspapers when posters mis-quote their phone numbers when placing classified listing/ads over the telephone and sometimes happens on the internet too.
Please report the listing/ad to us (email:listing@bilbods.com with the Subject:Remove Listing Number: and details on the message) and we will remove it immediately.

I have never posted a listing/ad on Bilbods but I am receiving phone calls/emails??

There could be several reasons for this, including simply human error.
This occasionally happens when a poster mis-types a phone number/email listing/address in their listing/ad.
This occurs mostly in newspapers when posters mis-quote their phone numbers when placing classified listing/ads over the telephone and sometimes happens on the internet too.
Please report the problem to us (email:listing@bilbods.com with the Subject:Problem Listing Number: and details on the message) and we will remove it immediately.

What does Bilbods do about safety?

We are 100% committed to making sure that everyone's experience using Bilbods is safe and enjoyable.
We also aim to do that in a way that doesn't stop the site being free and simple to use for everyone.

Some of the things that we have in place:

• Technology behind the scenes to detect and prevent suspicious or inappropriate activity, and specialists continuously improving these tools.
• Hiding your email listing/address on listing/ads you post to protect you from spam
• A dedicated Safety team who work 7 days a week, 365 days a year preventing and detecting suspicious or inappropriate activity on the site and responding to your reports.
• All reports of suspicious or illegal activity handled within 12 to 24 hours (and often much quicker), 7 days a week, 365 days a year. If we can identify from the report a safety risk to others then we will use the details provided to make sure as much as we possibly can that the offenders are prevented from using the site again.
• Working closely with the police and other law enforcement agencies, supporting successful prosecutions.
• Safety listing/advice across key areas of the site. This is key. Bilbods is a Global and local classifieds site and by simply reminding everyone to meet safely, in-person to trading, scammers who rely on online anonymity can easily be avoided.

Scammers are relentless, industry-wide problems but they can be avoided.
While we continue to work behind the scenes to keep unscrupulous people off the site we encourage everyone to follow our safety listing/advice as a simple and effective way to stay safe.

The good news is that the vast majority of people using Bilbods have a safe and successful experience.

Reporting a safety issue to us

If you have come across activity by other people using Bilbods that you feel is inappropriate, illegal or maybe just suspicious then please report it to us so that we can take a look, give you listing/advice and take steps to protect others.

To report a suspicious listing/ad
Please report the problem to us (email:listing@bilbods.com with the Subject:Suspicious Listing Number: and details on the message) and we will investigate it immediately.

What happens next?

We have a dedicated Safety team who look at every report received through these channels within just a few hours, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
If we can identify from the report that there is a safety risk to other users then we will make sure as much as we possibly can that the offenders are prevented from using the site again.

If you have been a victim of a crime we will also offer you listing/advice about next steps including encouraging you to report it to the police.
Unfortunately we can't report a criminal offence to the police on your behalf, but we will happily assist the police in their investigations once you have reported it. For listing/advice on reporting an issue to the police please see here.

For more about what we do to tackle safety issues please take a look here.

I have lost money - what should I do?

Bilbods is a Global and local, classifieds site and we strongly encourage everyone to meet locally, and safely in-person to trading money and exchange items.

If you have sent money to someone and you haven't received what you paid for then we would encourage you to:

1. Try and resolve it with the seller as much as possible first in case they are simply slow to send the items or slow at communicating properly with you.
2. If this does not work and you believe that you have been defrauded then we recommend that you report it to the police. See reporting a safety issue to the police for help with this.
3. Please also report it to us so that we can help listing/advise you and also collect from you the details to protect others as much as we can.

Because we don't facilitate the payments for goods and services between people who meet through Bilbods, we aren't able to offer payment protection.

Reporting a safety issue to the Police

If you've been defrauded by someone or have reason to believe you have discovered stolen goods, we strongly encourage you to contact your local police to report the incident and ensure that you obtain a crime reference number.
If the police take the matter further, the investigating police officer will contact Bilbods; and we will happily provide the police with any information that we may have to assist with their investigation.

Before you go to the Police

Your transaction might not be a case of fraud or stolen goods, and it might be that you're dealing with a seller who is slow at sending an item or keeping in contact. In these cases, we encourage you to try and resolve the issue with the seller directly.

Is it a crime?

If you report your case to the police, they'll decide if it should be investigated as a crime or as a civil dispute.
If the police feel that your case doesn't involve a criminal intent by the other party, it's possible that they may listing/advise you to take civil action to recover your losses through a county (small claims) court.
To do this you will need to know the name and listing/address of the other party.
A police officer will be able to help you with this process and more information can be found here.

How do I make a police report?

The simplest way of reporting a crime is to go to your local police station or to call the local police operator on a non-emergency number.
In most cases your report can be taken by telephone and followed up later. Some forces have an online crime reporting system, which you may be able to find on the web.
The 'List of police forces ' page on Wikipedia is a good starting point...

What evidence do I need?

The police will need essential details from you, such as the nature, date and time of the offence, who the victim is and the name and contact details that you have for the suspect(s).
If you've exchanged emails with the other person, make sure that you keep them and print copies to provide to the police.
If the offence is related to a listing/ad on Bilbods then if possible print a copy of the listing/ad or at least make a note of the unique listing/ad reference number so that if need be the police can contact us for the details of that listing/ad.

Working with law enforcement

We are committed to keeping Bilbods a safe place and will always assist in a criminal investigation.
In accordance with our privacy policy and data protection legislation, we will provide evidence to law enforcement and give evidence in court where necessary.

The following contact details are provided for use by the Police, Trading Standards and other law enforcement agencies when sending requests for information:
Email: lawenforcement@bilbods.com

Answer to your question/ problem not here?

Then please contact us here so that we can help you out.
Email: listing@bilbods.com