Protect Your Money With Preloved!

Preloved want our members to have the best experience possible when using our site. Which is why we are always looking at new initiatives to integrate to help. With everyone looking at new ways to budget, second hand products are a fan favourite. Those who have been with us for a long time know how great second hand is, and that Preloved have a mission to make it as safe as possible. That's because unfortunately scam artists come with online transactions. Our goal however is to mitigate that risk as much as possible. Read on to understand how you can protect your money with Preloved.

Protect Your Money With Security

Getting scammed online is a serious concern, which is why we take it so seriously. With that being said that doesn't mean we should boycott online purchases. Especially after they have become so familiar after COVID-19. This however also promoted more online scams, with scammers becoming more and more creative. So, as the UK's most trusted second-hand marketplace we are thrilled to showcase the other services and protocols we have in place! Keeping you and your money safe! We want our customers to know not only does Preloved monitor this and ensure it doesn’t happen, but we also actively putting in preventatives for our loyal customers such as yourself, so you can shop second hand with a first class experience.

Escrow Services

When buying and selling online one of the most straightforward and affective ways to protect your money is enabling an escrow service. Preloved have partnered with Trustap to make sure that you can transacted online with full security. So, what is Trustap? Trustap is a transaction platform that acts as a security blanket for people who want to buy and sell. It is a safety net for both online and face-to-face transactions. The easiest way to describe escrow services like Trustap, is that they are a neutral third party that holds onto your money until all parties are happy with the transaction, then everything is exchanged safely, fairly and simultaneously. An additional feature that Trustap offers is that on higher priced items or emotionally driven purchases the seller can set a deposit value when they enable Trustap on their listing.

Please read this blog on how to enable Trustap and how this free service can benefit sellers. If you are one of our incredible seller, you increase you chances of completing a sale by up to 4 times if you enabled Trustap on your adverts. Especially if you do this on higher priced items or emotionally driven purchases.

If you are a buyer the check out the buyer's journey in this blog.

ID Verification

Whether you are a buyer or a seller verifying your identification is important! This is because it provides both sides of the party with protection, as straight away you have a sense of security that everyone is who they say they are. When it comes to protecting your money knowing who you are talking with on the other side of the screen is not just important it is vital! Even more so when you are looking at a classified site which has over 9 million members - us! Which is why identifying yourself helps as it eliminates risks associated with classified online purchases.

That is why we have partnered with Yoti, a worldwide recognised identity platform. Yoti offers a simple and seamless process to verify your identity, and provides the relevant standards that Preloved expects from their partners. Every check is supported by an expert team of ‘document checkers’ and ‘super recognisers’ in order to prevent fraudsters. Preloved will specifically be getting Yoti to check that your Preloved account, name, address and DOB match your passport/driving licence.

To learn how to protect your money and verify your identity with Yoti by reading our blog on how to use it.

What YOU Can Do To Protect Your Money

Ultimately there is only so much that Preloved can prevent and help, but there is also things you can be doing. Here are 5 extra tips that you can look at integrating into your online shopping habits to protect your money!

• Use your own computer and your own internet connection;
• When using someone else's internet connection download and connect to VPN to hide to IP Address from scammers;
• Be wary of potentially untrustworthy sites - check out their reviews;
• Use advanced anti-malware program;
• Set a strong and complex password - avoid pets names!