Safety

If you don’t have the possibility to pick up the item in person, you always need to assure yourself that the seller is legitimate. A few ways to mitigate fraud risk are:

• Talk to the seller on the phone. Fraudsters generally know very little about audio equipment, and most HiFi enthusiast know a lot. If you can have a meaningful discussion about the item that is up for sale you are likely safer.
• Verify that the seller has the item in his custody. This can be done by video call, or by asking the seller to provide a photo of the item that includes a note with toady’s date and your name.
• Try to triangulate the seller identity by communicating through a couple of different channels such as Facebook, LinkedIn, a corporate e-mail (with the same name as in the private e-mail), eBay, or a web forum.
• Use a payment method that gives you the possibility to dispute the transaction if the item is not delivered to you (such as PayPal). Only use direct wire transfer if you are 100 % sure that it’s not a scam.

A few general pointers:

• If the item is underpriced, it’s an indication of fraud, especially at a place like AudioWoof, which is mainly known to people in the HiFi community, who are likely to know the value of their equipment.
• If the seller asks you to make down payment before shipping an item, it’s an indication of fraud. Most people would not ship an item that has not been payed in full.
• Copies of passports are easily stolen from cracked e-mail accounts and are readily available for fraudsters. A copy of a photo ID or passport is no indication in either direction, unless you can verify the identity in some other way as well.
• Fraudsters are very talkative and friendly. Don’t believe stories to motivate why someone can’t send you an image, why he needs you to pay by wire transfer or similar. Just wait until the guy gets back home, or his PayPal account gets unlocked. The average fraudster will have better communication skills that the average HiFi enthusiast. Don’t let that fool you.

AudioWoof takes no part of the trade and can never be made responsible for any financial loss resulting from a contact initiated on AudioWoof.

AudioWoof staff are constantly working to remove ads we suspect are fraudulent. But unfortunately, there is no guarantee that an advertisement on AudioWoof (not any other online marketplace) is legitimate. If you suspect a seller to be fraudulent, please contact us at [email protected]