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Buying & Selling – Safety Tips
- When buying or selling, you should meet in-person to see the item and
exchange money. The purpose of the Gulfji.com “For Sale” category is
to encourage face-to-face, local, trading. For personal ease and safety, always
ensure you take someone with you. If you're answering a home service ad, ask the
poster to produce identity and proof of qualification before inviting them into
your home.
- Never send your item before receiving the money
- Never send or wire money to sellers or buyers. This includes
never mailing a cheque or using payment services like Bidpay, Western Union or
Money Gram to pay for items found on Gulfji.com. It is our belief that these
forms of funds transfer are favoured by fraudsters.
- Gulfji.com doesn’t offer any sort of buyer protection/ payment
programs. Any emails you receive that talk about such systems are
scams, even if they may have the Gulfji.com logo. If you receive any emails
promoting these services, please contact us at info[at]Gulfji[dot]com
- Please also take special care when buying expensive items like
mobile phones, laptops, plasma TVs, airline tickets and even tickets for
shows/gigs. 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.
- Never provide your personal or banking information (e.g. credit
card number) to others over the Internet.
- Make yourself aware of common scams and fraud - Do not believe
the promise of large sums of money for your help in any task.
- Please report any attempted fraud or suspicious emails, ads, or other
activity by community members. In case of fraud or illegal activity, we
also recommend that you report it to the Police.
- Use common sense. If something sounds too good to be true, it
probably is.
What should I watch out for when buying an item?
Here at Gulfji.com we do our very best to protect our users and make your
visit to Gulfji.com 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 read our tips in
Buying & Selling – Safety Tips plus have a look at
our
Scam Watch section to stay up to date on common
scams out there.
I’ve sent the poster my money but he has not sent the goods.
Unfortunately, we are unable to get involved in the private transactions between
a buyer and a seller. However, if you can report the details , we will keep the
details on permanent file under the poster's records.
You may wish to contact your local citizen’s advice bureau or the Police, who
will be able to advise you on the best course of action to take. The number for
your local office can be found in the phone book.
The poster wants me to send cash up front - what should I do?
Don't do it. Gulfji.com recommend that buyers NEVER send cash
or cheques through the post, or place money directly into a seller's bank
account, in advance or expectation of receiving goods. We do not advise parting
with your money/goods until the transfer of goods/cash is completed face to
face.
Watch out for Western Union/Bid Pay – it is our belief that
these forms of funds transfer are favoured by fraudsters. PayPal is much more
secure.
See
Buying & Selling – Safety Tips for more advice.
Accommodation – Safety Tips
o View properties in person. Gulfji.com 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 ensure you take someone with you, or if you
are inviting someone into your home ask to see personal identification first.
o Never send or wire money to landlords. This includes never
mailing a cheque or using payment services like Bidpay, Western Union or Money
Gram to pay for items found on Gulfji.com. It is our belief that these forms
of funds transfer are favoured by fraudsters.
o Gulfji.com doesn’t offer any sort of buyer protection/ payment
programs. Any emails that talk about such systems are scams, even if
they may have the Gulfji.com logo. If you receive any emails promoting these
services, please inform us at info[at]Gulfji[dot]com
o Never provide your personal or banking information (e.g. credit card
number) to others over the Internet.
o Make yourself aware of common scams and fraud - see our
Scam Watch section. Do not believe the promise of
large sums of money for your help in any task.
o Please report to us if any attempted fraud or suspicious emails, ads, or other
activity by community members. In case of fraud, we also recommend that you
report it to the Police.
o Use common sense. If something sounds too good to be true, it
probably is.
Matrimonial – Safety Tips
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 Gulfji.com, 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/matrimonial/casual categories are designed for individual people to meet
others at a level that they are comfortable with. We promote safe practices and
strongly advise people to use common sense and express due caution in every
situation.
Jobs – Safety Tips
- You should find out as much as you can about the company from independant
resources before taking up a position. If you are an employer, follow up on
references and check on their authenticity.
- Meet your prospective employers/ employees face to face.
- You should NOT have to provide your bank account details when applying for a job
(this should only be once you have accepted an offer and started with the
company). If any jobs ask you for them, please report the ads to Gulfji.com by
clicking on ‘Report this posting for review by Gulfji.com admin’.
- Unfortunately some scammers do target job seekers so please make yourself aware
of the common scams out there by looking at
Scam Watch. All the usual common sense rules apply
- if it looks too good to be true it probably is!
There are some dodgy people out there, and despite our efforts to keep them from
Gulfji.com and protect you, occasionally a bogus ad or buyer slips through.
Read here for some common scams on the net to watch out for.
• Brand name spoofing/phishing: You get an email that claims to
be from Gulfji.com, eBay, Western Union, or another company and offers buyer
protection or an online payment system or perhaps a cash prize. These emails
will typically request that you send money or provide personal information. Any
emails which combine urgency with some need for personal details should be
treated with caution, no matter whom they purport to be from. Gulfji.com and
most other companies will never send out such emails. If you send money via
these sites you are likely sending money to the fraudsters.
If you receive an email alleging to be from a company offering a service then go
directly to the company’s official website and look for details of the service.
• Cheque overpayment: A buyer or seller or prospective tenant
will send you a cheque worth more than the value of the items/ rent 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.
• 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, Gulfji.com is designed
for local, face to face trading.
• Fake escrow sites: A buyer or 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.
• Work from home: Many work from home offers are "pyramid
schemes" which require you to recruit other members in order to get paid. For
example, an ad may say that you can make KD 3 an hour by stuffing envelopes. But
to make that money, you need to sell the system to others. Other work from home
opportunities are fronts for money laundering - key warning sign should be any
'job' that involves you receiving cheques and cashing them. For these reasons we
typically don't accept work from home positions on Gulfji.com.
I have been a victim of a scam/ I suspect a scam what should I do?
Please inform us at info[at]Gulfji[dot]com so that we can
immediately remove the ad from our listings. However please note Gulfji.com
does not take responsibility for any such scams based on your dealings with
anyone posting a classified on our site.
I have received an email that I think may be a scam. How can I tell if it is
dodgy or not?
There are many different types of email scams that exist. You should show
caution in all instances, especially with people who;
* Are overseas (remember Gulfji.com is a local community site) * Request payment via Western Union (or other online payment methods) * Request that you send goods before you receive payment * Claim to have a friend/agent who can pay you an amount greater than the value
of your goods, then ask you to send them the difference.
Here are two examples of fraudulent emails:
DEAR SIR. THROUGH THE INTRNET I DISCOVERED THAT YOU WANT TO SELL solid wood dining suite
IN THE AMOUNT OF KD 15, IN WHICH I HAVE INTEREST ON IT. OUR PAYMENT IS BY BANK
DRAFT. WHILE WE URGE YOU TO FURNISH US THE NAME, ADDRESS AND TEL. NO FOR YOU TO
RECEIVE THE PAYMENT. WAITING FOR YOUR URGENT REPLY.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello,
I have seen the price and its ok by me then i have instructed my client in to
issue the cheque on your name , meanwhlie i also instructed him to include your
money on the payment so you should be expecting a cheque of KD.15. this excess
is for my shipper that will be coming for pick up of the goods from your
location, the funds will be used for the shipping of the {racelet trailer tent}
along side other goods i placed order for in care of my shipper to handle for
me, i imploy that as soon as you receive my payment cash and and deduct your
money for the item (KD.3) and have my shipping Charges Paid to My delivery
Company as soon as you receive the payment .
My Shipper will come for pick up of the goods on a specified date that will be
convenient for you i hope i can count on you for my balance I ALSO WANT THIS TO
BASE ON TRUST CAN I TRUST YOU?...hope i can trust you with my shipping company
charges. Please acknowledge this email I have sent you and await my Payment. I
request you provide me with your details, for Payment to be Issued and mailed
out to you .
Details :Name in full: , Address: , City: ,: , Zipcode: , Phone#: Thanks as I await your Payment Details.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
See Scam Watch for more details of what to look for.
Report suspicious emails to us to info[at]Gulfji[dot]com
We don’t tolerate harassment or abuse of our Gulfji.com users and take reports
of this nature very seriously. If you have experienced abuse or harassment in
connection to either an ad on Gulfji.com or an email received from a
Gulfji.com user then please email us at info[at]Gulfji[dot]com
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 an ad on Gulfji.com 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 address
in their ad. This occurs mostly in newspapers when posters mis-quote their phone
numbers when placing classified ads over the telephone and sometimes happens on
the internet too.
Please inform us at info[at]Gulfji[dot]com and we will remove
it immediately.
I have never posted an ad on Gulfji.com 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 address in
their ad. This occurs mostly in newspapers when posters mis-quote their phone
numbers when placing classified ads over the telephone and sometimes happens on
the internet too.
Please inform us at info[at]Gulfji[dot]com and we will remove
it immediately.
I have been sent the password for my ad. I did not request this, so why have I
got it?!
Somebody else has keyed in one of your posting reference numbers to request the
password to your ad. They may have done this accidentally, so do not worry. We’d
only email the password to the contact given in the ad – no one else.
Spam
While posting a classified on Gulfji.com we suggest you to avoid giving out
your email address and let user contact you using the online contact form.
I have received a spam email in connection to my ad on Gulfji.com
If you have received a spam email in connection to your ad on Gulfji.com then
please inform us at info[at]Gulfji[dot]com so that we can try
and stop these people from emailing Gulfji.com users again.
How to report ads/ emails
Reporting to us any suspicious activity, spam or abuse helps us keep
Gulfji.com safe.
To report an ad, you can either
* Use the "Report abuse " link that can be found in the right-hand corner of
every ad.
Or
To report a suspicious email in connection to your ad on
Gulfji.com then please report it to us at info[at]Gulfji[dot]com
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Welcome Guest
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are our concern!
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