Oh, the internet’s choice. I love being able to spy on my cat when I am at work, I love being able to look up translations of latin maxims at a whim and I love the opportunities the internet provides to me to learn about the world we live in. 

But…. one of the things you learn pretty quickly spending time online is that for all the good, there is plenty of bad out there.

This year Trade Me is one of 15 organisations that work with children, young people and Kiwi internet users, to get behind Safer Internet Day. You’ll see that Kevin the Kiwi has changed his appearance for the day. 

Safer Internet Day is celebrated worldwide to encourage the safe and positive use of the internet and digital technologies, especially among children and young people.

The day is being coordinated through the good folk at Netsafe. They said this about the initiative:

“This global initiative highlights how creating a safer internet for children and young people is a shared responsibility.”

Here at Trade Me we agree and support the idea of shared responsibility for internet safety.

We work closely with agencies like Netsafe and the Police to make sure we are doing our bit to keep members safe. However, no matter how many measures we put in place to protect our community, the reality is that the community itself is still the best equipped to prevent harm.  That is where the responsibility becomes shared.

We get involved in initiatives like Safer Internet Day to help our community help itself through education and raised awareness. It’s important to remember that how we behave on the internet also influences the broader community of internet users. If we normalise risky or inappropriate behaviour, the community as a whole becomes more vulnerable especially if others, in particular younger members of the community, copy our behaviour.

Netsafe have pulled together some awesome information on the day for anyone interested in finding out more. Hop onto the Safer Internet Day page and get involved.

Have a safe day.

Cat lovers may have noticed some recent concern regarding the sale of a kitten via a classified advertisement on Trade Me which proved to be quite sick.

We noticed there was a bit of confusion around what Trade Me’s processes are in such instances. We were worried that a few comments around Trade Me not taking any action to prevent animal welfare issues suggested that our community isn’t aware of what we do behind the scenes.

We most certainly care about the welfare of animals, and here’s a few points on what we do behind the scenes: 

• Animal welfare is something we take extremely seriously on Trade Me – but we appreciate we are not animal welfare experts. To help us, we have established a fantastic working relationship with the SPCA and its team of Animal Welfare inspectors. This ensures that when issues arise they are dealt with quickly, fairly and with expert advice.

• If we receive complaints supported by firm evidence about pet sellers, we’ll look into it, engage the SPCA as appropriate and if needed we will remove listings and we can choose to restrict sellers from listing animals for sale, or ban them from the site if appropriate.

• Where complaints have merit and we can assist, we will provide evidence to support SPCA enforcement action against anyone using Trade Me in connection with the abuse or maltreatment of animals.

• We do not allow companion animals to be auctioned. The rationale for this is that a sale by auction creates contractual obligations on the parties to the trade. We do not want buyers or sellers to be obliged to complete trades where there are concerns.

• In contrast, a classified advertisement acts as a mechanism to introduce a buyer and a seller. This means that a buyer and seller can meet and if there are concerns such as the condition of the animal or the ability of the buyer to care for the animal, the parties can part ways without letting the sale go through. If either party had concerns following a meeting, they could contact Trade Me or the SPCA for further investigation.

• We encourage all prospective animal owners to check this list before committing to take on a furry friend.

• Due to the fact Trade Me has over 2.6 million live listings on the site, we cannot not pre-vet listings or “authorise” pet sellers as a general rule. We are often approached about restricting companion animal listings to registered breeders. There are good arguments for and against this. It’s Trade Me’s view that restricting the ability of normal New Zealanders to list animals on Trade Me would eliminate a limited number of dodgy sellers but also scoop up all the genuine sellers who may not be able to care for an animal and need to either sell it or give it away to a good home. And that’s just not fair.

• We had about 35,000 cat and dog listings on the site in 2014 (including animals for sale and animals free to a good home). Drilling into the nature of the contacts about them by our members, a small minority relates to welfare issues. It’s more likely that contact with Trade Me was due to  breeds being mis-described, or animals being offered for sale before the minimum age of 8 weeks.

• In 2014 we worked with the SPCA on 10 cases.

• In animal welfare cases emotions tend to run high, and while our primary concern is to ensure that no animals are maltreated, we need to be fair to all parties and act on reliable evidence, rather than rumours or incomplete facts. We expect all of Trade Me’s members to treat each other with respect both in their communications with each and on the message boards. Bullying behaviour will not be tolerated.

Here are some useful links:

Can you answer yes to these questions?

Things to think about when buying animals

Image credit: This cute fellow is Sebastian at 9 months, his human works in the Trust and Safety team. 

Ever heard the expression, “if it’s too good to be true then it probably is”?

If you think you’ve scored yourself a sweet deal but find that thought echoing in the back of your mind, you might want to listen to it.

Unfortunately there are all sorts of dastardly characters out there who have anything but honourable intentions and one example of their scams is the infamous ‘White Van Scam’.

This scam isn’t anything new and has been around long before the internet came along. However, now that we have all made the shift online, this scam has followed suit.

What is the ‘White Van Scam’?

This scam involves someone selling high-end electronic goods with fantastic specifications at crazy cheap prices. These goods were originally sold out of the back of dodgy white vans, as opposed to online, hence the name.

Unfortunately the product isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and is nothing but a let-down. You’ll have parted with your hard earned cash and will only have a pile of junk to show for it.

How do you spot this scam?

The good news is that there are a few tell-tale signs that you should look out for:

• It will often be an electronic item. It is super easy to talk these up and everyone is always after them.
• The item is likely to be a brand that you have never heard of.
• The product may be marketed as the latest and greatest from some far reaching corner of the globe and you’ll often find a swanky website that goes with it, singing its praises. Unfortunately the website is just about as legitimate as the product itself.
• The scammers may try to draw you in with a drastic price cut. You’ll be made to think that you are about to score the deal of the century, getting that new stereo for $500 instead of its original $3,000 price tag.

 If the item you are looking at shows these signs, your alarm bells should start ringing.

So what can I do?

Simply put, knowledge, common sense and your gut instinct is your best defence here.

Do your homework on the product that is being sold. Scout out some reviews online. Check if you can find the product on more than one site. Do the search results show if the product is known to be used in this scam?

As always, if you come across something that just doesn’t feel right, don’t buy it.

Be sure to loop in our Policing team via the Community Watch button at the bottom of every listing, if you have any concerns.

If you want to know more about the other kinds of scams out there, check out our handy online scam guide. 

Creative Commons image used courtesy raver-mikey on Flickr. 

The ICC 2015 Cricket World Cup starts on 14 February, with 23 matches being held across New Zealand. This is one of the world’s biggest sporting events and no doubt there will be a late clamour for tickets when it’s known which teams will play each other in the quarter finals and beyond.

Just like the 2011 Rugby World Cup, this event is subject to the Major Events Management Act (MEMA). The effect of this for Trade Me users means that there are special rules applied to the sale of tickets to the tournament’s matches and un-official merchandise.

Tickets

The MEMA allows for tickets to be only resold at face value (i.e. their original sale price) or less, but not a dollar over. This is to avoid concerns around scalping.

However, Trade Me has taken the decision to not allow the sale of ANY tickets to ICC Cricket World Cup matches, even when offered at face value.

This is due to difficulties around ensuring tickets are being sold at the correct price, particularly with various categories of tickets available and category prices varying from match to match.

This applies to all matches, whether they are being played in NZ or Australia.

Merchandise

The MEMA also seeks to protect the event from what is known as ambush marketing and specifically disallows the sale of products that have not been officially sanctioned by the tournament organisers.

Under MEMA, certain words related to the ICC Cricket World Cup cannot be used in conjunction with the sale of items that are related to cricket. Here’s the official list of words that cannot be used in listings.

It’s also worth remembering that selling fake or counterfeit merchandise is, of course, illegal and not allowed on Trade Me either.

Selling genuine gear from prior World Cup events is okay as long as the item is described as accurately as possible. So if you have Dipak Patel’s shirt laying around…

While we’re talking all things cricket, this is not a bad time to remind members that only genuine Beige Brigade clothing and equipment can be described as being Beige Brigade – they may act like rabid fans but they have actually trademarked their name!

Photo of a keen cricket fan used with permission of Beige Brigade.

Got an old dunger of a car and planning on selling off its parts? Thinking you can sell the VIN tags? Not on Trade Me, mate. 

Believe it or not, this practice is actually against the law under the Land Transport Rule: Vehicle Standards Compliance 2002. Any tampering with the VIN tags is illegal and therefore the tags cannot be sold on Trade Me.

What the heck’s a VIN?

A Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) is a unique 17-character code that identifies your vehicle. The VIN is used to combat fraud and for the NZTA to identify a vehicle for registration purposes.

The VIN can be found stamped into the body of your car (often the firewall), stamped on a metal plate fixed to the body of your vehicle or etched into the rear window of the vehicle.

If a vehicle has been identified by a Transport Service Delivery Agent (TSDA) as having the VIN tags tampered with, they must report this to the police and the NZTA. This means that your vehicle can be blocked from receiving a Warrant of Fitness, making it un-roadworthy.

Hang on a minute, what if I’m selling my rear windows and the VIN has been etched into the glass?

This is fine and can be listed on Trade Me, however it’s probably wise to mention the etching in your listing description for transparencies' sake.

The moral of the story here is to ensure that any fitting/removal/transferring of VIN tags is performed by a TSDA to ensure your vehicle can stay on the road

Any listings found to be offering vehicle identities for sale on the site will be removed.

We also note that we have a strong working relationship with NZTA who have demonstrated a keen interested in such listings.

Creative Commons image used courtesy serialnumberplate on Flickr.