Safety Centre

Listed below are some guidelines for safe selling and buying on PetsForSale.co.nz. Combined with your common sense, they will help keep you safe.

• Never disclose personal details until you are sure a buyer is genuine.
• If you are accepting cheque as a method of payment ensure the funds have been cleared in your bank account before you release the item.
• If someone offers to pay for an item and the shipping costs but asks you to pay shipping costs first upfront, don’t. You are likely to lose the money.
• Be suspicious if someone offers to pay a lot more than your asking price.
• Be wary of inviting people into your home if they are complete strangers. Have someone with you or meet at a halfway public place.

• If you can try and meet the seller face to face so that the item can be seen and payment can be exchanged then this is always the safer option. Never transfer money until you have seen the item and ask for a receipt as proof of purchase.
• Beware if a seller is asking a very low price and asks for a holding deposit. They may keep your money and not send you the item.
• Make sure the number you call is a New Zealand number; otherwise the seller could just be making money from phone calls.
• E-mail can sometimes be an unreliable form of contact so try to get another method of contacting the seller like mobile number.
• Pay extra attention when buying expensive items.
• Be aware of scams that promise large amounts of money for items upfront.
• Report any attempted fraud to us and the police.

• Calls from Fake Pets For Sale representative
  Advertisers who have recently placed paid for ads are contacted by someone pretending to be Pets For Sale accounts staff. They claim that there is a problem with the original payment and request the credit card details again.
  
  On no account reveal your credit/debit card details to these callers. Either hang up or advise the caller that you will phone back on the telephone numbers listed online.
  
  
• Cheque overpayment
  Buyers being sent a cheque worth more than the vaue of the item and then being asked for the surplus to be returned. The cheque will clear in your account and then be refused or stopped a few weeks later, leaving you without the money, no item and also out of pocket for the surplus you paid back.
  
  
• Import fees
  Sellers claiming that there are fees to import the product into the country. Don’t pay them as you often lose the money and don’t get the product.
  
  
• Pet Shipping
  A seller will offer to ship a pet (usually sought after breeds) from overseas and get you to pay for this upfront. In most cases the pet doesn’t exist and you are left out of pocket.
  
  
• Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, then it usually is.

If you find a fraudulent or suspicious listing on PetsForSale.co.nz, please help the community stay clean by reporting it. Simply click the "Report listing" link from the listing detail page and we'll take care of removing the listing.