Let us identify some of the most common deceptions that you will encounter online when trying to sell anything of value.

We can assure you that these are active right now because we are always filtering them out of our 'contact the seller' queue.

In case you missed the propaganda we have everywhere, we actively monitor all e-mail communications to our sellers and simply flag and delete the fraudulent contacts. You never see them from our site. That being said, if you chose to ignore our warnings NOT TO POST YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS in the body of your ad, then they will simply contact you directly and avoid our scam filter. If you have posted your e-mail address in the description field or elsewhere in your ad, we urge you to log in, edit your ad and remove it!

Our 'contact the seller' e-mail form allows for a secure initial contact that includes us screening it for scams. Naturally, they could still call you, but that costs them money and they are in the business of duping people out of money, not spending it themselves (as I will elaborate on below).

Here are some dead give-away that the contact is not legit:

• The person is claiming to represent a 'client' and is in another Country (usually they claim to be from Europe these days since everyone is leary of Nigerians)
• They use a yahoo.com email address or other similar free, anonymous and throw-away address to do business from
• If they don't use a yahoo.com (and 95% do) then their domain name usually does not pull up a valid business website
• They use terrible English (you would think they would have someone who actually speaks the language of their victims proof their emails).
• They always want to know your "best offer" and want to either "wire" you the funds or send you a cashiers cheque.
• They will have a third party work with you... usually a shipping or 'procurement' agent (aka local con artist who gets a cut)
• At some point along the negotiations, they want to send you a cashiers cheque for more than the agreed price and want you to 'wire' back the difference
• Common to all scams, they rush you along without giving you time to come to your senses

We help protect you by grabbing the sender's IP address at the time they submit the online form. There are ways to fake this process but most of the folks running these scams and not well-enough educated on such internet tech-trickery. The result is that they say they are in London, UK but their IP address shows they are from somewhere else... usually Nigeria.

Now I don't want to sound like a racist or ethnic biggot, but these are the facts folks. Nigeria, like many other mineral-rich third world nations, is a corrupt country. The police and government are not to be trusted and are usually accomplices, unwilling to actually find and prosecute their own nationals. Nigeria is an oil-rich nation where the wealth is not shared with the citizens. Instead, internet fraud is something tantamount to a National pass-time, like we would consider Hockey or Baseball....

There are schools teaching young, poorly educated Nigerians how to scam North Americans and equip them with all the basic theory and tools to run the frauds and how to counterfeit cheques and identity theft scams. The one course they lack is English, since they still don't write a compelling scam script.

Here is a tool that you can use for free. You can type in the IP address that was included in your 'contact the seller' email and see what Country that IP address is registered in.

If you are unsure about an e-mail you get from our sites, you can always forward a copy to us for our opinion. We will look at it and tell you if we think the subject is legitimate and how to proceed. You have nothing to lose by asking us, since we have nothing to gain by any transaction that may ultimately result from your advertising with us.