SAFETY MEASURES FROM THE HELP & SUPPORT TEAM AT GHANAHOMETRADE.COM
It’s extremely important to us at GhanaHometrade.com that while you use our advertising portal you ensure to desist from, and remain safe from any forms of fraudulent acts and stay safest as possible. The following are the safety rules we insist you uphold at any point in time during your search, contacts, and transactions at GhanaHomeTrade.com:
General Personal Safety Rules
1. Trust your instincts: First and foremost, the adage “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” definitely applies to ecommerce. Your instincts are often the best indicator if something is not right. Follow your instincts and use common sense approach in all of your contacts.
2. Never give out personal information: Never give out your personal information such as your social security, social insurance, or national insurance number, credit card details, banking information, your address, and so on.
3. Talk on the phone: While e-mail may be the most convenient, especially for initiating transactions, when possible try to speak over the phone before agreeing to a transaction, or agreeing to meet if it is a local transaction (If they refuse, excuses are often very revealing). Again, decide with your instincts.
4. Keep it local: You can reduce your risk by keeping all transactions local. If you initiate a transaction over a wide distance (international transaction), always make sure that no money exchanges hands until you have met locally. If you are initiating transaction for a home you are interested in, please, do not issue any payment until you have met locally. This also eliminates the need to use any form of payment other than cash, especially when buying. If you are outside of Ghana and you have seen a property you are interested in and want to buy, you can request a trusted family member or friend to inspect the property on your behalf before any transaction begins.
5. Inspect before you buy: Not only should you assess the quality of any property for yourself, but you should meet the seller in-person. Inspect all necessary documentations to make sure they are valid. We recommend that you seek for experts’ opinion if you need to make verification of any documents you are not familiar with. Be certain that all documents pertaining to a property you are interested in satisfy the reason for which it serves in your transaction.
6. ALWAYS meet in public and never go out to meet someone alone: For your personal safety, we highly recommend that you always meet to negotiate in a public place, during daylight, and bring along a friend. This protects you by not revealing your address and makes it less likely that someone will try to scam you. Always be aware of yourself.
7. Don’t go to the car: Do not accompany a person to their car for any reason, and, of course, do not let them go to the car with items/important property documents in hand if they haven’t paid for them yet.
8. Ask questions: Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Feel free to ask sellers why they are selling their property and about its condition. And sellers – don’t be afraid to ask buyers what their intentions are. If something sounds shady, remember you don’t owe anyone anything and you can always back out of a transaction before any money is exchanged.
9. ALWAYS keep records: Especially if you buy and sell often – keep some sort of record for yourself on what you have bought and/or sold, where you met, and who you bought from or sold to.
10. The most important advice is: only proceed with a transaction if you are 100% comfortable. As a rule your instincts are your best protection.
REPORT ABUSE
Report any form of abuse and suspicious looking postings to us immediately if you feel that an ad or a posting looks suspicious. If you think you have been a victim to any scam, report your situation to us immediately. You can also contact your local police department immediately if you feel cheated.
BE ON THE LOOKOUT FOR FRAUDSTERS AND SCAMMERS
1. Deal only in cash: We emphasize that you never wire money, send advance payments, or use your credit card. Never send money through Western Union or MoneyGram. To be on the safest side always decline offers that “insist” you use such transfer services and report them to us immediately (be informed that many fraudulent activities and scams are run through such transfers). Make an effort to avoid any deals which are restricted to only e-mails – which is a notorious route of communication for online scammers.
2. Fake personal/financial information requests: GhanaHomeTrade.com will never send e-mails to request for your personal details, bank account details, or any other personal information that could be abused. In case you receive an e-mail requesting that you provide your personal details to us, please do not open any links. Kindly proceed to report the e-mail to us and delete it.
OUR SAFETY MEASURES
At GhanaHomeTrade.com we will continuously work meticulously to ensure that the site is as safest as ever for your lasting convenience by; giving you the option to hide your phone number or email addresses on ads you post, providing you with up-to-the-minute safety pieces of advice, and track reports of suspicious, fraudulent, or illegal activities to ensure that offenders do not use the site again. Upon receipt of any requests for information in connection with fraudulent or other criminal activities, we will cooperate with the police department to expedite necessary inquiries.
