Safe Trading Tips
How to avoid scams and ripoffs, and trade ham radio equipment safely online
Trading equipment online may seem a little scary, but if everyone did the 4 “Must Do” items below, nobody would lose a dime. It’s really this easy to avoid losing money.
MUST DO THESE 4 THINGS!
- Choose a Payment Method with Purchase Protection
- Easiest Solution: Use PayPal with Purchase Protection! When PayPal is used normally (i.e. the receiver pays about 3% to accept the payment) PayPal offers Purchase Protection to protect the buyer in case the seller does not deliver the promised goods, for up to 6 months after the payment was sent.
- Do not use PayPal “Personal” or “Friends & Family” payments! If you choose to send money via PayPal using the “Personal” or “Friends or Family” method of payment, Purchase Protection IS NOT AVAILABLE! While it avoids fees for the seller, it offers you, the buyer, NO PROTECTION!
- Do not use any other payment methods that offer no protection, such as Western Union, Bank Transfers, Zelle, Venmo, Checks and Money Orders. Scammers seem to especially enjoy using Zelle Bank Transfers, Money Order and especially Personal/Friends or Family PayPal payments, so I would avoid those payment methods unless you are 100% certain you are dealing with a trusted, legitimate ham, and not a scammer pretending to be a ham. PayPal with Purchase Protection and Credit Cards offer excellent buyer protection… You are on your own with other payment methods.
- Do not send money to a 3rd party, such as the buyer’s son or daughter or other family member.
- Call the person and talk to them. You will get a sense of whether the person is a real ham, a sincere person that you want to do business with, and if they are the owner of the equipment, just by talking to them. As an extra precaution, you might use Google or Yahoo and search the phone number to see if anything interesting shows up. Does the area code match where the FCC says the ham lives?
- Be sure the initial communication came through the QTH.com Classifieds. Now that QTH blocks so many scammers, the scammers have started to answer ads by looking up your email address on the Internet, then sending users a DIRECT, PERSONAL EMAIL, bypassing our system entirely. If the initial email came from QTH.com, the FROM address will be a “no-reply” QTH.com email address and will contain a copy of the original ad, information about how to donate to QTH.com, etc., etc.
- Check to see if the email address matches the one listed on QRZ.com. Are you really working with the person that owns that callsign, or just someone posing as them? PLEASE NOTE that sometimes scammers get into some accounts at QRZ and change the email address. Scroll to the bottom of the QRZ profile and look for “Last Update” — was the profile recently modified? If so, this could be a sign their QRZ account was recently hacked.
OPTIONAL PRECAUTIONS
- Please consider only dealing with licensed hams. Many of the complaints that we see are from hams that have lost money or equipment to deals made with non-hams.
- Don’t send equipment or money to the person’s “office” or “girlfriend” or “daughter”, etc. Make sure the person is not impersonating a ham by verifying that you are sending money or equipment to their address listed with the FCC.
- Check their Feedback
- Search the QTH.com Feedback Forum to see if there is anything being discussed about the callsign of the person you are about to deal with.
- You might also want to expand your search by checking the eHam.net Good Seller / Buyer Beware forum and the QRZ.com Ham to Ham References forum also.
- Use EXTREME caution when dealing with hams from outside USA/Canada. There are a number of sophisticated scammers that pose as foreign hams. They answer Wanted To Buy ads, offering non-existent equipment, using other people’s p4hotos of the equipment, asking for payment via Western Union. Check to see if the email address matches the one listed on QRZ.com, and otherwise do heavy research to confirm you are working with the right person and not a scammer.
- Consider using Signature Confirmation when Shipping. Even if you purchase insurance when shipping, if the package is stolen from the front door or porch, most shipping providers (including USPS) will NOT reimburse you. Insurance is for shipping damage or missing mail. Stolen packages AFTER delivery are not included. Using Signature Confirmation is a small price to pay, to insure the recipient has received the package.
- Sometimes scammers use other people’s pictures in their ads, since they don’t really have any equipment to sell. One idea is to ask the seller to send you a picture of the radio with THEIR QSL CARD in the picture. But BEWARE… Scammers have been actually editing photos to make it look like their QSL card on the bogus equipment — look close, don’t be fooled.
- Don’t fall for the “cashier’s check SCAM”, where you are sent a FAKE Cashier’s Check. Often, they will have a story that they owe some money by someone in the US, so they will have them send YOU the money (usually a LOT of money) and you are to deduct the cost of your equipment, and send the balance to the foreigner, via Western Union or similar. Or, another twist is they will send you a fake cashier’s check and offer you even more money to “hold” the equipment, so their “Shipping Agent” can come and pick up the equipment. See Tip #1. Use PayPal so you have buyer/seller protection. Never use Checks, Cashier’s Checks, Money Orders, etc.
- Don’t fall for the “fake Zelle alert” — the scammer will ask that you use Zelle to send them a payment, then you will receive a fake message from Zelle, saying you need to deposit $300 (or some other amount) to activate your account. Zelle has no such requirement. The link in the fake Zelle message just sends your money to the scammer! One of the many reasons we recommend using normal PayPal (not Friends & Family) for protection.
- Read the excellent Safe Trading Tips by K4ICL, a very experienced trader (now SK). See his tips at THIS LINK
- Read more tips in our Safe Trading Forum at THIS LINK
If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
Thank you for using the QTH.com Free Ham Radio Classified Ads!
Scott Neader, KA9FOX