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Advertising FAQs

Q. How much does it cost to place an ad?
A. All ads are FREE! There is no charge to place an ad on FinditClassifieds.com. All that we ask in return is that you simply tell a friend or family member about Findit Classifieds.
Q. Who can I report online fraud to?
Q. How long will my ad run?
A. Ads run until an automated process removes them based on the rules engine configuration at the time. If we need space, we'll purge data at a rate that helps sustain operations at low cost.
Q. Why has my ad been deleted before the stated 90 days?
A. If your ad has been deleted before our normal expiration period it is most likely because it has been reviewed by one of our editors and marked as a duplicate or not meeting our "TRASH FREE" standards or violated one of our terms of service. You can read the section below regarding what types of ads are acceptable.
Q. Why has my ad been blocked?
A. Our site is about quality, not quantity. We strive to provide our visitors with the best possible experience. If your ad has been blocked it is because one of our moderators or automated system has found a reason to block it. Ads may be blocked for various reasons, many of which you will find mentioned later on this page. For obvious reasons, we do not discuss the details of how our system works or what exactly it looks for. If you feel your ad has been unfairly blocked you can send an e-mail to support@finditclassifeds.com and request a review of your ad. Before emailing please read the next section.
Q. What types of ads are not acceptable?
A. The following types of ads are not acceptable and may result in an advertiser being banned and or IP addresses being blocked.
  • Ads for items for which the sale of is illegal online.
  • Ads placed in the wrong section or category.
  • SPAM - multiple submissions of the same ad.
  • Work at home ads / Business opportunity ads.
  • MLM Ads.
  • Ads for pornographic items or web sites.
  • Political ads of any kind.
  • Religious or Religion related ads of any kind.
  • Ads to with reference to or for online stores and their affiliates.
  • Affiliate advertising such as clickbank and others like it.
  • Dating ads or Personals.
  • Sexually explicit ads of any kind.
Q. What types of items are not allowed or illegal to sell on the web?
A. Each country, state and even city may have their own laws and regulations regarding the sale of items. It is your responsibility as an advertiser to know this. Below is some information to assist you.

Partial list of items for sale and services that are not permitted on FinditClassifieds.com:

  • Child pornography, obscene materials, offers or solicitation of illegal prostitution.
  • Items issued to United States Armed Forces that have not been disposed of in accordance with Department of Defense demilitarization policies.
  • Food stamps, WIC vouchers, SNAP EBT cards, SNAP or WIC foods, infant formula, etc and other items received from governmental agencies or programs.
  • Fireworks, including "safe and sane" fireworks or any destructive devices or explosives.
  • Alcohol or tobacco products. Controlled substances or illegal drugs, substances and items used to manufacture controlled substances and drug paraphernalia.
  • Prescription drugs and medical devices, including prescription or contact lenses, defibrillators, hypodermic needles or hearing aids. Nonprescription drugs that make false or misleading treatment claims or treatment claims that require FDA approval.
  • Blood, bodily fluids or body parts.
  • Household pets of any kind including dogs, cats, primates, cage birds, rodents, reptiles, amphibians, fish. Re-homing with small adoption fee OK. Pet animal parts, blood, or fluids are also not permitted, including stud/breeding service.
  • Restricted or regulated plants and insects, including noxious weeds, endangered plant species, or live insects or pests.
  • Pesticides or hazardous substances, or items containing hazardous substances including contaminated toys, or art or craft material containing toxic substances without a warning label.
  • Illegal telecommunications equipment, including access cards, signal jamming devices, password sniffers, unloopers, or cable descramblers
  • Stolen property, or property with serial number removed or altered. Burglary tools, including lock-picks or motor vehicle master keys
  • False identification cards, items with police insignia, citizenship documents, or birth certificates.
  • Counterfeit currency, coins and stamps, tickets, as well as equipment designed to make them. Counterfeit, replica, or knock-off brand name goods. Material that infringes copyright, including software or other digital goods you are not authorized to sell, warez, bootlegs.
  • Tickets you are not allowed to sell, including airline tickets that restrict transfer. Coupons or gift cards that restrict transfer or which you are not authorized to sell. Lottery tickets, sports trading card 'grab bags', raffle tickets, sweepstakes entries, slot machines, other gambling items.
  • Used or rebuilt batteries, or batteries containing mercury.
  • Used bedding and clothing, unless sanitized in accordance with law.
  • Non-packaged food items or adulterated food.
  • Bulk email or mailing lists that contain names, addresses, phone numbers, or other personal identifying information.

Internet Advertising Safety Tips

Findit Classifieds strives to create a useful and friendly environment in which users are honest and trustworthy. To help promote smooth transactions, we would like to highlight some steps you can take to ensure that your experiences with us are enjoyable and hassle free. The Internet holds great potential for all sorts of legitimate activity and commerce. However, as in any medium, the Internet can be abused by scamsters. New Internet scams have sprouted up, and older mail and phone scams have found their way online. Here are some safety tips to keep in mind. These tips are not designed to scare you, but to encourage you to be vigilant and to use common sense in all transactions.

These Basic rules will help you avoid being ripped off:

  1. Always agree to meet in a public place like a local coffee shop or police department parking lot!
  2. Do not sell your car or other high priced item to someone that wants to buy without seeing it!
  3. Do not accept overpayment!
  4. Do not arrange shipping - they want it let them sort it!
  5. Do not sell to someone from overseas!
  6. Watch out for pet adoption scams and capuchin monkeys for sale. Most common dog fraud ads are Teacup Yorkies, Blue eyed Huskies.
  7. Learn about nigerian 419 scams - they show in many variations see google
  8. If it seems too good to be true .... IT IS!!
  9. If you get a reply which seems similar to this...simply DELETE IT, DO NOT RESPOND!
Law Enforcement Links

Overpayment Cheque Scam

People selling high-ticket items such as cars, motorcycles or computer gear via the Internet should be aware of a cheque scam that is bilking victims out of thousands of dollars. Although the scam has been around for quite some time, recent trends indicate that it is netting an increasing amount of victims, especially among car owners looking to sell their vehicles.
    Typically, an overpayment cheque scam works like this:
  • A seller places an Internet advertisement for a car or other item with a high price tag.
  • Later, the seller receives a generous offer for the item, usually via an email.
  • The seller agrees on the price, and, often, also agrees to the proviso that he or she refuses any other offers for the item.
  • The scammers then send a cheque for the item. However, the cheque is for substantially more than the specified amount.
  • The scammers invent some excuse for this overpayment and ask that the balance be electronically transferred to a specified bank account. For example, they may claim that the extra funds are to pay the fees of an agent who is handling the sale or to cover shipping costs.
  • The seller dutifully transfers the amount out of his or her own funds.
  • Later, the seller finds that his or her bank has dishonoured the cheque. In some cases, the bank may actually have cleared the funds, but discovers later that the check is a forgery or was stolen.
  • Thus the seller has been bilked out of a substantial amount, with little chance of recovering the money. Furthermore, the item remains unsold and the seller may have rejected legitimate offers in the mean time.
The supposed buyers usually originate out of West African nations such as Nigeria. In fact, it is probable that the same gang of con-artists that run Nigerian loan scams and international lottery scams are responsible for the overpayment cheque scam as well. Like the Nigerian scam, the intent is to draw the potential victim deeper into the scam via a series of emails.
To protect yourself against this sort of scam, never agee to a deal in which the payer wishes to issue an amount for more than the agreed price and expects you to reimburse the balance. The scammers use a variety of excuses to explain the overpayment, but any such excuse should be treated with the utmost suspicion.

Examples:

thanks for the quick response am okay with price,and because am far away from united states so don't worry about the shipment i have shipping agent that carter for my pick up any where in the world. i will instruct my client to send you a cashier's cheque of (5000) so what you have to do immediatley the check gets to you just deduct the funds for the puppies($500) and send the excess money ($4500) to my shipping agent so that they can be able to pick the puppies up from your destination and which will also covers the shipping fees of my other consignments in the state. so if this is okay by you, you can forward your full name, address and cell phone number. expecting your response back.

Thanks for your mail,I am really interested in the (plymouth),Fine i will pay $200 for it,Please i will want to indicate my mode of payment to you since i am not in the United States at the moment and there is a Company in the United States that is indebted to me in the amount of $3,500,So i will want to really seek your Assistance at this point,That i will want you to forward to me the the following informations below that i will need to forward to the Company indebted to me so that they can make out the payment directly to you and after you have cashed it in your bank,You will have the excess amount on the payment sent to my International Shipping agent via WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER ,All charges you are to pay at the western union office when sending the excess amount of $3,300 should be deducted from my balance,So you don't have to bother yourself about that, The reason for this is that,The Company indebted to me say they cannot make out the payment in two installment except once, And since i am purchasing your (plymouth) from you at this time,I will want to really be sure that my funds will be safe in your hands as i will want to entrust my money unto your care,So inorder for us to complete the purchase of the (plymouth) now,I will want you to get back to me with the following informations inorder for me to forward it to the Company indebted to me inorder for them to make out the payment in your name and send it to you ithout any furtherdelay,

The following informations that i will require from you are as follows,
1] YOUR FULL NAME TO BE WRITTEN ON THE CHECK,
2] YOUR DIRECT HOUSE ADDRESS WHERE YOU WILL WANT THE PAYMENT TO BE SENT TO,
3] YOUR DIRECT CELL PHONE NUMBER THAT YOU CAN BE REACHED AT ANYTIME OF THE DAY SO THAT I CAN GIVE YOU A CALL SO THAT I CAN EXPLAIN TO YOU BETTER,
Upon receipt of this informations i have just requested from you,I will immediately forward it to the Company indebted to me to make out the payment in your name and send it to you immediately,I will be awaiting your response as soon as you get this mail,Do confirm this mail and get back to me as soon as possible.

Thanks



Read a copy of the latest Scam Email


After receiving a report of scammers sending emails to FinditClassifieds.com users, I posted a bogus ad myself to see just how long it would take before I was contacted by an internet scammer. Below is an actual email that was sent to me on 3/28/2005 after posting my ad online. It took less than a week for one of these criminals in search of their next victim to contact me! Stay informed and don't let yourself or someone you know become their next victim.
Note: Upon scrutiny of the email, it appears that the email may have originated from Petah Tiqwa in Israel. This just goes to show you that the Nigerians don't have a monopoly on these types of scams. They are truley wide spread and global in scope.
As you read it you will notice the key scam elements

Sample Scam E-Mail #1

Hello, Just want to know if you still have the ............Pentium 3 866Mhz...........forsale. If yes I will be in need of the following informations below: Firstly, the pics of the item if available I want you to have it sent to my email box. Secondly,I want you to tell me little about the present conditions of the item named above.Lastly, the last price and if it is negotiable. Moreso I will want you to tell me if you can accept a cashier check/United Postal Money Order as your payment and once it clears you can release your item? I want you to make sure that the price given doesn't not include the shippment charges owing to the transportation shipping agent company that I have a contract with, they will come and pick the merchandise up once the check /Money Order clears your bank.The reason for the pick up is owing to international shippment as the item will be picked and shipped to Australia. If you are interested in selling to me kindly get back to me on time as I have some other important things to handle so I am awaiting your early response. Randall Russell 141 NORTH 6TH STREET, GREYBULL WYOMING 82426.

Sample Scam E-Mail #2

I have a customer who is interested in buying your ( motor) ,if you are selling,kindly get back to me with the final price and picture . Payment do you accepta certifiedcheck? Shipping i will be responsible for the shipping myself to SWEDEN, I will be looking forward to hear from you. thanks... From: sara martins <saramatins@yahoo.com> Origin IP: 80.179.101.197 Traced to Location: Somewhere in the United Kingdom