Safety centre

The overwhelming majority of Preloved members are exactly who they say they are: ordinary people buying and selling things they no longer need. A few simple habits will keep you safe from the small minority who are not.

Meeting safely

Most Preloved trades end with a face-to-face handover. Keep it sensible:

• Meet in a public, well-lit place wherever possible — a supermarket car park or busy café works well.
• Take someone with you, or at least tell someone where you are going and when you expect to be back.
• For large items collected from a home, keep the exchange at the door rather than going inside alone.
• Inspect the item properly before any money changes hands.

Payment red flags

Cash on collection, or a payment you can verify has cleared before the item leaves your hands, is the safest way to settle up. Treat the following as red flags, whichever side of the deal you are on:

• Requests for a bank transfer before you have seen the item — once sent, a transfer is almost impossible to recover.
• Any mention of gift cards or vouchers as payment — no genuine buyer or seller pays this way.
• Cryptocurrency payments, or links to unfamiliar "payment" or "escrow" services.
• Overpayment stories — a "buyer" who sends too much and asks you to refund the difference.
• Pressure to pay a deposit to "hold" an item you have never seen.

Keep your chat on Preloved

Scammers almost always try to move the conversation off Preloved quickly — to email, text or a messaging app — because our tools cannot see them there. Keeping your messages on Preloved protects your contact details, keeps a record of what was agreed and helps our moderation team act on reports. Be suspicious of any reply that ignores your item and simply asks you to email an address.

Protect your account

• Use a strong, unique password for Preloved and never share it.
• Preloved will never ask for your password, bank details or a payment by email.
• Be wary of links in messages claiming to be from Preloved — log in via the website directly.

Reporting a problem

If an advert looks suspicious, or a member behaves badly, report it: every advert has a report link, and you can block a member from contacting you from any conversation. Reports go straight to our moderation team, who review them and remove listings and members that break the rules. You will be helping the next person as well as yourself.

If you have been scammed

Contact your bank immediately — the sooner they know, the better the chance of stopping or recovering a payment. Then report it to Action Fraud, the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime, at actionfraud.police.uk or on 0300 123 2040. Finally, report the member to us so we can act on their account. There is no shame in being caught out — reporting it quickly is what matters.