Safety Tips
While most members of Hifinear have good experiences, it’s important to stay alert and educated about how to stay safe.
It’s important to know what the average cost of the item you’re looking for is in comparison to the ad you’re viewing. If it’s drastically less than similar items, be careful. Fraudsters often post a once-in-a-lifetime deal to pull in as many people as possible. The common saying stands: if it’s too good to be true, it probably is.
If you’re buying an item, get to know what normally comes with it and make sure that all the parts you’ll need are there. For high-valued items, it’s also important to know what replicas look like and how to tell if it’s genuine.
If you’re looking into a service, or anything offered by a business, look up the company online. Make sure that their address and phone number check out. If available, look up some online reviews.
Ask for an original receipt for the item, especially if it is a newer item
It is basically a guarantee that the seller is who he/she pretends to be. Be careful - A validation is not necessarily a guarantee
They will help you make a first impression. However, remember that a high score is not a guarantee of a successful transaction. If the profile is newly created, you must be extra vigilant. Ask if seller to validate the profile before trading
Hifinear will not be able to monitor the safety of your money if you transfer it directly to the seller
When speaking to individuals online, it’s important to be cautious when giving out information. Never give out your identification or banking details unless you are 100% sure that you’re speaking with the real company. Note: Hifinear’s customer service team will never ask for your identification, passwords, or banking details.
A Fraudster’s greatest tool is that online translations are anonymous. Don’t provide any money until after you’ve met them in person and had a chance to inspect the item. We recommend that you meet during the day in a busy, public location like a coffee shop.
Many forms of money transfer can be faked or are hard to reverse should anything go wrong. If you can’t use cash, use safer methods such as licensed e-Wallets, PayPal and make sure that the payment has been processed before trading the item.
Sometimes a sale just seems off. If anything isn’t sitting right with you, don’t be afraid to walk away. You are not obligated to follow through with a transaction even if you’ve already agreed to a price.
Attackers seek to divert correspondence outside of our service as soon as possible. There it is easier for them to apply their tricks. We suggest you to chat on Hifinear. If our system identified anything suspicious, we will alert you.
You get an email that claims to be from Hifinear, Western Union, or another company and offers buyer protection or an online payment system. These emails will typically request that you send money via this site or provide personal information. Hifinear 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.
A buyer or seller will send you a cheque and then ask for money to be returned to them. Often the cheque will bounce and you will have lost all money you sent to the other party.
A seller claims that there are brokerage fees, import duties, or other such fees required to get an item into your Country. Do not pay such fees, as you will most often never get the product and will have lost any money you paid. Again, to remind you, Hifinear encourages you to deal local, in-person trading.
A buyer or seller 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.
The best way to tell a scam is to be familiar with popular scams that occur these days. However, in addition to that, scammers often share some of these other characteristics:
Note:
Hifinear does not review every ad before publishing live to our site.
Hifinear does not offer any sort of protection programs for Hifinear items. Any emails or websites that talk about such systems are scams, even if they may have the Hifinear logo. If you receive any emails promoting these services, please forward the message to us.
If you experience anything suspicious, contact us as soon as possible at support@hifinear.com or click "Report inappropriate" at the bottom of the ad. Then we investigate the matter.
This article is intended to serve as a quick overview of online safety.
