Back door selling

What is Back Door Selling?
This usually starts as a response to a ‘Want To Buy’ (WTB) posted on the forum.
Among genuine replies you may get answers from unscrupulous people who see an opportunity to make fraudulent claims that they, or their friend, have one for sale. The reality is that no such item exists and they are just interested in getting you to part with your hard earned money.

So how do you tell fraud instigated from genuine responses?
There are no completely fool proof rules that you can apply but there are many indications that should set alarm bells ringing.
1. Is this a new member? If he/she has only been registered for a short while and has no feedback then be suspicious.

2. If the seller claims to be acting on behalf of another; a friend or relative, this is almost certainly a scam.

3. If the seller is not a VIP member or is an ordinary member with less than 100 posts, they are not eligible to sell on the forum anyway.

4. If they ask you to contact them via a private email link or through other social media then this is also inviting trouble. Keep all correspondence to internal PMs.

5. If the seller is asking to use direct bank transfer or other unrecoverable methods of payment to gain funds this could also be suspicious, however this can also be a legitimate way to pay for goods.

6. If they are reluctant to send you images which includes a hand written tag, then question this also. A tagged image helps to establish that at least there is such an item in their possession.

If you feel reasonably satisfied that this is a genuine offer and you decide to buy then the following rules must be applied.
The seller must advertise the watch on the forum, listed as a reserved sale for ‘member’s name’.
The thread must follow all the forum rules which include the sales template header, good images of which at least one contains a hand written tag showing the seller’s name, the forum name and the current date.
The buyer can then react to the post just as they would for an ordinary sale.
Once the funds have been transferred, the sales thread should be marked as [SOLD].

Report to a moderator or administrator any instances of approaches being made, offering to sell unsolicited items.

If you stray from these rules then RepGeek staff will not help you if the sale goes bad or you find yourself scammed.

This post has been discussed with and approved for publishing by the administrator nembo