Fraud Prevention
WikiHorseWorld.Com Fraud Prevention
Version 1.0
WikiHorseWorld.com ("WikiHorseWorld" or "The Website") wants your online experience to be safe, productive, and enjoyable. It is important that you exercise caution when buying or selling on this or any other Website. Fraudulent buyers and sellers may target horse website users in an attempt to steal your money, your property, your livestock, or your personal information. WikiHorseWorld will not disclose your personal information to law enforcement, government officials, or third parties without a subpoena, court order, or substantially similar legal procedure, except when we believe in good faith that the disclosure of such information is necessary to prevent imminent physical harm, financial loss, or suspected illegal activity. Furthermore, any email communications between WikiHorseWorld Users using our Website's email system is anonymous and your personal email address will not be revealed to the User(s) with whom you're communicating. Therefore, avoiding fraud while using WikiHorseWorld's services isn't very hard as long you abide by some "common sense" guidelines.
- When selling something, it is a good idea to accept payments using an online payment service such as PayPal or other similar online payment service. Payments made via PayPal are immediate and PayPal does an excellent job of verifying the authenticity of their members. When selling a horse, you can also ask for cash when the buyer or transporter comes to pick up the horse.
- When selling something, it is never a good idea to accept payment via personal checks, cashiers checks, or common (e.g. grocery store) money orders as these payment methods are easily forged or can be stopped or canceled after you've made delivery. U.S. Postal money orders tend to be safer because they contain watermarks that are much more difficult to forge and can be easily verified by your local Post Office.
- When selling something, if you decide to accept payment via personal checks, money orders, or cashiers checks, its always a good idea to stipulate that delivery or shipment of the item cannot occur until a couple weeks after you receive payment so that your bank has time to process the check or money order and verify that the funds have actually been credited to your bank account.
- Use extreme caution when giving anyone any personal information such as your full name, email addresses, phone numbers, your home address, bank account numbers, credit or debit card numbers etc.
- Be very suspicious of anyone who lives far away from you (e.g. another country) who claims they want to buy your horse. Transporting horses long distance is very expensive and buyer's typically only ship very valuable horses over long distances. Therefore, such long distance buyers may be fraudulent.
- Many fraudulent website users may live in foreign countries and therefore may be unfamiliar with your language. Be suspicious of any buyers or sellers who use excessively poor grammar or spelling, especially if they offer very favorable transactions or want to be paid in cash or untraceable funds.
- Never enter into a financial transaction with anyone that wants to send you an amount of money greater than the sale price of the horse or item being sold and wants you to refund the difference. This is a common scam used by fraudulent buyers.
Although WikiHorseWorld works very hard to prevent fraud and fraudulent activities from occurring on our Website, WikiHorseWorld expressly disclaims any and all liability if you are the victim of fraud involving our Website. Any and all interactions and/or financial transactions between yourself and other Users of this or any other Website are solely your responsibility and WikiHorseWorld expressly disclaims any and all liability for any such User interactions or transactions. See our Terms of Use Agreement (incorporated herein by reference) via the link located at the bottom of every WikiHorseWorld webpage for further details. For additional information about how WikiHorseWorld helps you protect your privacy and place Classified Advertisements on our Website, please refer to our Privacy and Classified Advertising Policies (both of which are incorporated herein by reference) by clicking on the respective links located at the bottom of every WikiHorseWorld webpage.
