Safety Tips For CrazyOz
General
- Never send money to anyone. CrazyOz is for face to face trading only.
- Never give your bank details to anyone.
- IP addresses can be spoofed, so they are not 100% accurate.
- Meet in daylight preferably.
Buying and selling
- Never send your goods or money to anyone.
- If someone says they are out of the country and they want to send you money for shipping goods to them, it's probably a scam!
- How the scam works: They send you a fake cheque or a fake email from some kind of payment system such as paypal hoping you will send the goods before the cheque clears or before you notice the payment confirmation email is not legitimate. - Don't carry large sums of cash on your own. Take a friend with you to purchase the item.
- Be suspicious of people who claim to be out of the country.
- Be suspicious if a deal is too good to be true. Don't let greed get the better of you! :-)
- Meet the seller in a public place if possible.
Renting a property
- If a landlord says they are out of the country and want you to send the money as a deposit, it's most probably a scam!
- How the scam works: You send the money, there is no property to rent so you lose your money.
- Another Scam: They ask you to send money to someone you trust to prove you have money to rent the flat. They want you to use a system such as Western Union. You send the money to your friend or family member. They then ask for you to prove it by showing your payment receipt. You scan the receipt and send it to them by email or fax. They can then duplicate the receipt and claim the money with the serial numbers on the receipt. - If a potental tennant says they are out of the country and want to send you a deposit for the property before viewing it, it's most probably a scam.
How the scam works: They send you a fake cheque for more money than you require (you want £1000, they send £1500). When you tell them they paid too much, they say "ok, send me £500 back". If you send the £500 back before finding out the cheque is fake, you'll lose your money.
Meeting someone from CrazyOz (Personals/Dating/Friends)
Quick tips
- Meet in a public place such as a bar or coffee shop.
- Tell a friend you are meeting someone from CrazyOz and say the time you expect to be back.
- Get a phone number of the person you wish to meet and speak to them before you meet.
Scammers
If someone online asks you for money for any reason (travel fair to meet you, help paying their bills, sickness, etc) they are probably a scammer and should be reported to the website you met them on.
Fake photos
If the person only sends professional model like photos, it might not be them. Ask for normal unprofessional photos of them. Also ask when the photo was taken. Some people will send photos from 20 or so years ago and will look totally different when you meet them.
Get their phone number
If they don’t want to give their phone number, they could be wasting your time.
Expensive phone number
Sometimes they will give you a premium rate phone number to contact them on, some of these numbers look like normal telephone numbers too. So be careful. Use a Pay&Go SIM card to contact them if you are unsure of the number so you wont run up a big bill on your contract. You can also search Google to find out more information on the number.
Get them on Web Cam
In this day and age, the majority of people have smart phones with video cameras or webcams on their laptop or home computer. Most Internet cafes will have web cams too. If they are serious about meeting you, they’ll make time to see you on a web cam.
Social Networking
Ask if they have a Facebook or some other social networking account, most people into Internet dating these days will also have a social networking website account. If they don’t use social networking websites, then they might not be who they say they are.
Meeting your online date
If you decide to meet the person, make sure it’s in a public place like a coffee shop or a bar. Tell a friend you are going to meet someone from the Internet and email them the profile/photo of the person you expect to meet. Tell your friend how long you are going for and when you expect to be back. If you feel uncomfortable at anytime on the date, make your excuses, be polite and leave.
Don’t wait too long on your first date
If you’re early or on time and your date is more than 30 minutes late, go home. Phone up your date and let them know you are going home. If you stay, you will look desperate unless they have a very good excuse. Teach them a lesson for being late. They might not even turn up! Don’t let them waste any more of your time.
Meeting an Escort
A number of users have emailed this scam to me. You hire an escort to come to your house for company. The escort asks you to pay first then says they need to leave your house to give money to their mini cab driver or manager. You pay the money up front, the escort leaves with your money to pay the cab driver or manager and you never see the escort again.