YOU’VE BEEN SCAMMED!

How to buy & sell online without getting conned

I recently went into full-on declutter mode. My husband and I had both brought furniture and furnishings from our twenties into the relationship, and it was time to pare down the clunky ’70s pine units filling up with junk and Dad’s well-meaning efforts at carpentry that had been fobbed off on us. (When you’re 22 and scraping by, you’ll gratefully accept just about anything to help furnish a room or flat.)

So we did what everyone does: we sold our stuff on a classifieds website. A few quick cash transactions later and we had a few bucks to add to the redecorating fund. Then we started looking around to see what else we could give the heave-ho.

But then stories began filtering through about friends and acquaintances who had been scammed (or almost scammed) out of items they had listed on major online trading portals. There were some common strategies that came up again and again – here’s what to keep an eye out for.