Being Safe in the Hen House Classifieds
Transactions In Person
There are some simple and general rules of thumb one may want to utilize when agreeing to doing transactions in person. Perhaps this is simply unavoidable anyways depending on what you are purchasing. Most sales in the classifieds are usually an in-person sale.
Staying safe is the most important thing and as most people are genuinely trustworthy and mean well, there are always those few bad apples unfortunately.
When you meet someone:
– Never meet in a secluded place.
– Have a friend or family member accompany you.
– Never invite a stranger into your home.
– Insist on a public meeting place like your local police department. Perhaps this sounds a little odd, but, many police departments have set up buy/sell spaces in their parking lots.
– Always tell someone, a family member or friend, where you are going and who you are meeting.
– You know that gut feeling? Trust It!
If you come across an advertiser selling something or even buying something that goes against every item above, reporting the ad to us is a good idea. We want to help keep our users safe.
Online Scams
Unfortunately it is near impossible to eliminate those dreaded online scam attempts but with your help, we can be sure to keep the Hen House classifieds as clean as possible.
If you come across an advertisement that is not local, BINGO! Our classifieds are geared to be local so if you are on the New York Hen House Classifieds site and someone from another country places an ad asking for investment money, well, more than likely a scam!
A Big Tip on dealing with online sales and money:
Do Not provide or accept payments before meeting someone in person.
Requests to do the following are usually scams.
– Wire Money
– Pay With Gift Cards
– Deposit a Cashier’s Cheque
– Use an Escrow Service
– Provide Financial Information such as your banking account numbers or financial logins
– Provide any personal information such as your SIN/Social Security Number, D/L, etc.
We have seen a few things that folks should be aware of:
– A request for “Verification” or a “Code”
– “Guaranteed” payment processing services
– A request for a call or to email for more information about an offer
– Any offer that involves shipping or movers
Let’s keep ourselves and the Hen House scam free! Always remember to meet in a safe place, never pay before you meet, and always report an ad you think falls into one or some of our scam possibilities outlined above.
Identifying Scams
We have put together some warning signs of the typical potential of an advert being a scam or someone trying to scam you. Many of these scammers have no moral compass and will scam anyone and everyone without a second thought. Whether it be money, personal information, or valuables; a scammer is out to get one of those or all of them from you.
Look for these scammer warning signs:
– Person creates a sense of urgency and tell you there is a some sort of deadline to have you give them money
– Item or items need to be shipped so they won’t meet you in person
– Provides a detailed sympathetic type of story so they can trick you out of your money
– Pretend to be someone of authority, like the police
– Scammers will sometimes claim to be a religious leader or government official just so they can gain your trust
– Price is way too good to be true and create that sense of “eager to make a deal”
– Asking for payment online through a fake website which will gather all your payment information
– Promising you that their method of payment is “completely safe” just to make you believe they care about your safety and information security
– Scammers sometimes will mention a well-known company to you during the scam to make you feel more comfortable as now perhaps you have both dealt with the same company
– Telling you they have passed some sort of verification process so they are now trustworthy just because someone else apparently “approved” them
– Scammers will sometimes start a friendly and lengthy conversation to get the answers they want from you so make sure you know instantly what they want right away, don’t converse with them
– When they are located in a different part of the world, a scammer will definitely not want to meet in person; red flag!
– If a scammer offers to pay you before meeting, this is usually a sign of a fake payment scam
– NEVER accept a cheque, even if it says it is certified; these can be forged easily
– Stay away from Wire Transfers when selling items online
– A famous scam is the classic overpayment; avoid this by never accepting payments until you are in front of the person
Phishing Scams
A phishing scam is created for one purpose; to steal personal information. Protect yourself by making sure you follow some general rules:
– Never click on a link to login to an account or service
– Never fill out a form on another site that is linked from an ad on our website
– Never download any attachment sent to you
– Never send or receive anyone asking for you to use a verification code
– Never provide access to any account, including usernames and/or passwords
If you have had communication with anyone asking you for your personal information, please be sure to change your username and passwords for websites or anything associated with their line of questions including your banking and investment information.
Text Message Scams
If you receive a text message claiming to be us and it asks for your email address to verify your account, IT IS A SCAM! Hen House already has your email address so we don’t need you to send it to us again. If they claim your account will be permanently erased unless you respond, um, no. We don’t do that and we are the only ones who can delete an account. You are safe.
Any text message that asks you for login information or personal information, block the number and then delete the message. That is the best way to reduce the scams coming through on your phone.
We won’t text you and ask for your personal information. Any verification done is through your email and if you have a listing on our site, well, we won’t have to verify anything else after the initial time of your signing up.
We also don’t threaten our users, that is simply not cool, so please know that it wasn’t us!
Do you think an ad on our website is an ad placed by a SCAMMER? Let us know right away! Visit our reporting form today; CLICK HERE!
Harassment
This is something we take VERY seriously and we expect those being harassed to let us know about it.
– Has someone used your information and is posing as you online?
– Has someone been sending you harassing emails, sexual or threatening or otherwise?
– Is someone constantly sending you unwanted messages and refuses to cease from doing it?
– Has someone used your personal image as their own on our family of websites, including our dating site?
We take harassment very seriously and in addition to reporting the issue to us, if you feel threatened, we recommend you consider contacting your local law enforcement agency. Any records required by law enforcement that we have will be provided without subpoena when it comes to harassment.
If someone is harassing you through email, threatening or otherwise, you can take a snapshot of the email header and report them to the email provider which is providing them email. Hosting companies and email providers, in general, take threatening and harassing emails seriously.
We want all of our users and guests to feel safe and enjoy our website.
Reporting
Report Internet Scams in Canada
https://antifraudcentre-centreantifraude.ca/
Report Internet Scams in the USA
https://www.ic3.gov/
