When buying or selling, you should meet in-person to see the item and exchange money. The purpose of the Puppies and Kittens “For Sale” categories is to encourage face-to-face, local, trading. For personal ease and safety, always ensure you take someone with you.

Never accept payment by cheque. Dont accept cheque payments whatsoever.

Do not trade or sell pets to any foreigners. Cash on delivery only and meet face to face, do not sell to people in other regions/states if you do not feel 100% comfortable with the transaction

Pet Shipping Scams A seller will claim to have a pet and will offer to ship them from an overseas location, or even get you to book seats on a plane! These are usually sought after dog breeds such as English Bulldogs, Yorkshire Terriers and Chihuahuas. These ads are usually accompanied by ‘staged’ pictures. The pets don't exist and the fraudsters simply try to get you to pay money upfront. Remember: be wary of overseas sellers.

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 pets or any pet products on Petsforsale.co.za. It is our belief that these forms of funds transfer are favoured by fraudsters.

Petsforsale.co.za does not 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 PetsforSale.co.za logo. If you receive any emails promoting these services, please report it to us: fraud@petsforsale.co.za

Petsforsale.co.za does not offer any sort of Live Chat Support. If you receive any emails containing a Live Chat link, please report this to us: fraud@petsforsale.co.za

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.

Tips:

Don’t respond to emails from people or organisations that you aren’t familiar with.

Don’t open downloads or follow links in emails. If you know the company, type their home URL into the browser.

The most common SCAM is by way of "Cheque overpayment": A buyer or seller 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. DO NOT ACCEPT CHEQUES

Fake escrow sites: 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.

Other good sources of information to read about common scams on the net are:

• Department: Trade and Industry Republic of South Africa - Fraud Hotline.

 

• Get Safe Online - is an online safety guide with top 10 safety tips – well worth checking out.