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Draft notice

This document was drafted by an automated system. It is not legal advice. The Want operator must have a licensed attorney review before public launch.

Safety Tips

Last updated: 2026-08-22

Want is a bulletin board. You find each other here; everything else happens between you and the other person. That means safety is on you. These are the rules that keep people out of the police report.

Before you go further, three things Want does NOT do

  • We do not verify identities. Anyone can create an account. A name, a photo, and a story are not proof of anything.
  • We do not hold funds. The $0.99 posting fee is the only money Want ever handles. There is no escrow. There is no “Want balance.” If a stranger says money is “held by Want,” they are lying.
  • We do not inspect, ship, receive, or guarantee any item traded through Want. Everything else is between you and the other party.

Do the deal in person, in public, when you can

  • Meet at a busy coffee shop, a mall lobby, a police-station parking lot (many departments post “safe exchange zones”), or a bank foyer.
  • Bring a friend.
  • Do it in daylight.
  • Never invite a stranger to your home. Never go to a stranger’s home.
  • Tell someone else where you are going, who you are meeting, and when to expect you back. Share your live location with a friend.

How to pay (and how NOT to)

Green-light payment methods for in-person deals: cash, Zelle, Venmo (only after you have the item in hand), or a bank transfer AFTER inspection.

Red-flag payment methods — refuse if any of these come up:

  • Western Union or MoneyGram wire transfers. Never reversible. If it turns out to be a scam, the money is gone. Full stop.
  • Gift cards (Apple, Amazon, Steam, Google Play, any brand). Gift cards are universal scam currency. No legitimate seller or buyer ever needs to be paid in gift cards.
  • “Cashier’s check” for more than the price with a request to refund the overage. This is the classic overpayment scam. The check will bounce a week later. Your refund will not.
  • Cryptocurrency for a first deal with someone you have not met. Crypto transactions cannot be reversed and cannot be traced back to a person by you.
  • PayPal Friends & Family. Friends & Family waives PayPal’s buyer and seller protection on purpose. Anyone who asks for F&F for a purchase is asking you to waive your only recourse.
  • Any request to “hold” money in escrow that isn’t a real escrow service you chose. Fake escrow sites are trivial to spin up. If escrow is genuinely needed, use escrow.com and navigate there yourself — never click a link the counterparty sends.

Shipping deals with strangers

  • Most shipping-only “buyer” scams end the same way: a fake payment-confirmation email arrives in your inbox, and you ship the item to a mail forwarder. The money never actually moved.
  • If you must ship, require irreversible payment — Zelle from a US bank, or a wire that has already cleared in your account (not just been initiated) — BEFORE you ship. Ship with tracking and a signature requirement.
  • Never ship to a country you cannot see on a map, and never ship to an address that turns out to be a freight forwarder. If the address searches to a warehouse, that is the scam.
  • Verify payments by opening YOUR banking or payment app, not by trusting a screenshot or a forwarded email from the buyer.

Classic scams to know

  • The Overpayment. Buyer sends you $700 for a $200 item and asks you to refund the $500 difference. The original $700 payment bounces a few days later. You are out $500.
  • The Fake Escrow. “Let’s use a safe escrow service — here’s the link.” The link is a look-alike domain running a fake dashboard.
  • The Rush. “I’m buying it as a gift, I need it today, I’ll PayPal you extra to expedite.” Speed is designed to skip your checks. Real buyers can wait an hour.
  • The Sob Story. “I’m a deployed soldier and can’t meet — my shipper will pick up and pay you then.” No shipper is coming. They want the item and, often, a refund of “shipping fees” they “overpaid.”
  • The Fake Certified Check. The check clears provisionally, and your bank credits your account. Ten days later the bank reverses the deposit because the check was counterfeit. Wait ten business days before treating any check as final.
  • The Cash-App-Sent Screenshot. A screenshot of a “payment sent” page is trivially faked. Verify money arrived by opening YOUR app, not by trusting theirs.

Personal information

  • Never send your Social Security number, driver’s license photo, birth date, or bank account number to anyone you met through Want.
  • No legitimate buyer or seller ever needs any of those to complete a deal on Want.
  • Never share a verification code that was texted or emailed to you. Every code sent to your phone has the same warning on it for a reason.

If something goes wrong

  • Report the listing or message to Want. Every want and every message has a Report button.
  • Report the scam to the FBI’s IC3 at https://www.ic3.gov.
  • Report to your state Attorney General’s consumer-protection division.
  • Report to your local police non-emergency line if it involves an in-person meeting that went wrong.
  • Want does not have a legal obligation, nor the ability, to recover funds or force a resolution. We can, and will, remove the reported user from the platform if the report meets our Community Guidelines.

This document is safety guidance, not legal advice. Read the /legal/terms and /legal/community pages for the full policies. Have a lawyer review anything you’re unsure about.

Safety Tips · Want