What is Community Patrol?

Similar to a neighborhood patrol, OldRide's Community Patrol allows users to alert us to suspicious or mis-represented classified ad listings or other community information that has been posted on the site, so that we can help protect our members from online scams and Internet crooks and useless nonsense. You will find the Community Patrol links located at the bottom right of each page.

As many of you are aware the Internet has opened up a new venue for Online Scammers and Criminals to operate their illegal operations. Some of the more well know operations include:

1.) A suspected crook or scammer poses as a serious buyer and displays a genuine interest in purchasing your advertised vehicle or merchandise; they then offer to send you a cashier's check or money order for more money than the asking price, with the objective that you will send them back the difference. BEWARE: The objective is to have you send back to them the remaining funds! As it can take several weeks for a bank to recognize and or clear a money order or cashier's check you would be required to pay the bank back.

2.) A suspected crook or scammer advertises a phony vehicle for sale well below market or in some cases within market value. The phony seller then requests a down payment deposit to hold the vehicle. When the deposit is received from the unsuspecting buyer the crook flees with your deposit!

These are some of the better-known scams and many more exist and are constantly being refined by crooks. In many cases these phony ads or auctions are paid for using Stolen Credit Cards which end up costing the Merchant (in this case OldRide.com) additional Charge Back fees in conjunction with the original transaction amount. In the end this fraudulent cycle drives up the cost for everyone!!!

While OldRide.com makes every effort to remove suspected items before they go public we do, in some cases overlook an item and your help in identifying these crooks is greatly appreciated.

To report a violation:

1. Go to the page of the item you want to report.
2. Click the corresponding link that matches the reason for your report.

• Fraudulent - You feel that this ad is just too good to be true and after further correspondence your suspicions lead you to believe that it is.
• Suspicious - You just can't put your finger on it, but you think that there is something a little fishy going on here. Send us a report and we will further investigate.
• Wrong Category- OOPS! It looks like someone might have put their item in the wrong category on the site or it isn't relevant to its location. That's okay, we all make mistakes sometimes.

3. Add detailed information about the item in question.
4. Leave your contact information if you would like to receive a follow up from OldRide about the status of your report.
5. Click Submit Report.

After we receive your report, we will further investigate the user and the circumstance of the report. If further action is needed, we may send the seller a warning, remove the listing, or suspend the user's account. We usually won't suspend an account unless the user has violated OldRide policies or is clearly attempting to defraud others.

If you have any questions or enhancement ideas for the Community Patrol you are welcome to call 800-252-2260 or 413-663-5046 or email [email protected]