Safety Tips for Celtic Zone Members

 

While the majority of members experience positive transactions; we would like to ensure that everyone is aware of some of the following general online safety guidelines, which apply to both Buyers and Sellers.

The below information is a guideline only, and Celtic Zone is neither liable nor responsible for the consequences of any action taken as a result of our safety tips.

Therefore, these guidelines should not be interpreted as legal advice, and some points are common sense reminders that we might all forget from time to time. 

General Safety Tips

• Do not give your email address directly to the buyer or seller. Use our online messaging system to maintain privacy for both parties.
• Never give personal details such as how many people are living in your house, or if you are going on a holiday soon, etc.
• Read the ad well and do not be shy to email the seller any questions to ensure that the item is suitable including measurements.
• Never arrange to meet at night, it is always best during daylight hours.
• Never meet in a remote location, always meet somewhere that is a busy area where there are lots of people around; and take care if carrying large amounts of money.
• Take another person along with you for protection, if that is not possible leave details of your plans with someone.
• Where possible do not arrange to meet at home, especially if you are alone, we suggest asking someone else to be with you.
• Be suspicious if something is too cheap, a bargain not to be missed! This is often connected to a scam to lure you. (see the scam related section below).

 Motoring and Vehicles

• Always view a car during daylight hours and take your time inspecting it for evidence of a crash and faults.
• Take it to a trusted Mechanic to check it over before buying, it should cost you between 25 and 40 Euro, but it could save you thousands and always test drive.
• Check the vehicle registration online to make sure the vehicle is not listed as stolen, have a bad history, fake NCT, crashed or it is not a hire car, check its history online at MotorCheck.
• Scammers usually attract buyers with an unbelievable cheap price on a great looking Vehicle. 

This is an example of one scam:

' The Seller pretends they are a Professional working in the UK, who was planning to come over but can’t due to work commitments. If you send the ferry money; a friend will deliver the car.'

May we suggest checking the consumer rights website where you will find lots of useful information at the CCPC website.

Payment Transactions

• The most usual and popular way of making a purchase is meeting face to face. In this case, only make a cash transaction or bankers draft; never accept personal cheques unless they are crossed in case they bounce.
• Never give anyone your bank or credit card details for payment; this could leave you vulnerable to fraud and scams.
• Never post cash or a postal order as there is no proof of payment.
• Do not post items before receiving the payment and only post once payment is cleared. So, if you are sent a personal cheque make sure it clears in your account first.
• Never accept a payment for cars or large expensive items using Paypal. It should be only in cash and the buyer should see what they are buying; otherwise, it is likely to be a scam.
• Never use Western Union or other similar ways to transfer money.
• Please see the European Consumer Centre Ireland for further details about online transactions.

IMPORTANT: 

Apart from the secure registration; Celtic Zone will never ask you for banking details by e-mail or phone. There are scammers that may pretend to be from Celtic Zone or another company trying to obtain your details, we will never do this. In the unfortunate event of this happening please contact us and inform the Garda.

 A secure method of payment is Paypal, if something goes wrong with your purchase you can report the transaction to them by opening a Case; which may lead to refunding your money, please check Paypal’s up-to-date terms and conditions HERE.

When paying for goods and services using Paypal, always choose to pay for them as a business transaction, and never pay the seller as friends and family to be covered for that payment

Phishing  

What is Phishing?

It is the fraudulent practice of sending emails pretending to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit/bank card numbers online.

Usually, an email that may go into your spam folder or straight to your inbox, when you open it there is a message which appears to be legitimate correspondence with a link, an attachment, or both.

Never click on the link/attachment as it may contain a virus or a trojan to access your email addresses, and send junk mail to all of your contacts, or the least harm it could cause is selling your email addresses to spammers.

Even though the spammers can make the displayed email address look genuine; you can see it is not by clicking on the sender’s E-mail address which will reveal their real address.

Please be aware these incidents also occur via text messages, which are becoming more common recently.

 

For more details of Scams and Phishing the consumer rights have many good useful examples please visit the CCPC website.

Here is a true example of ' Phishing ' done very cleverly that was going around over the last few years:

There is a car that was a great bargain advertised online, a contact is made and you are tempted to buy that car, the seller sends an email telling you that you can pay with Paypal because it is secure.... Next thing you receive a ' Phishing' email looking exactly like Paypal’s with invoice to pay for the car, on clicking the link it takes you to a website which looks like Paypal’s, asking you to enter your Paypal’s credentials, once this information is obtained by the criminals they can use it to transfer funds from your PayPal account to theirs.  

So never reply to any such emails sent to you. If a seller sent you an invoice and you clicked on the link, always check that in the address bar of your browser the link starts with https://www.paypal.com, and the green lock symbol is next to it.          

If you receive any suspicious emails as such; please report it to Paypal, check this link.

Property

• Never purchase a property without viewing it first even if it is overseas, and always consult a Lawyer before purchase.
• Check the property register for local property and do your research before you go.
• If it is abroad, make sure that all planning permissions and amenities are in place. Also, pay an independent surveyor to carry out checks; it could save your life savings.
• If renting check the person you are dealing with is the right person, especially to avoid subletting situations, it can happen…. You think you are dealing with the owner when in fact it is a tenant; who may not even give the landlord the rent.
• Before buying a property Overseas it is a good Idea to check what your liability would be here in Ireland, a great source to read about this is HERE.
• Always make a legal contract and obtain receipts for any deposits paid.
• Watch out for renting scams, there is a good reference to it HERE.

Further information for Landlords and Tenants can be found at this Citizen Advice Bureau link.

Scams

There are always new scams, most scammers hook innocent folks with a cheap price for a desirable good item to secure your interest; since we all love a bargain!

When the price is so amazing then usually there is a huge Con, beware!!

Spotting a scam

Emails or Text messages are received with a fake copy company logo such as Celtic Zone’s, a bank, or another company; usually requesting banking, financial or personal details ...

Never ever disclose these details and never click on the link. We will never contact you to ask for them.

The scammer advertising will try to obtain your bank details or ask to pay money in advance, playing on your good nature and trust, then you do not hear from them again.

Please inform us immediately if this happens in our name or via an advertiser on the Celtic Zone website, you can also report the matter to a Garda Síochána.

We will remove any ads that do not conform to our terms and conditions.

Tickets and Holidays

When buying concert and flight tickets or package holidays; one of the first things to ensure is that all dates are valid. With flight tickets do check the cost of name changes; sometimes this can be more than buying a new ticket. Always do an independent comparison price checks first.

When buying holiday tickets; please make sure that the travel agency has a travel bond (Insurance) and are a member of ABTA, ATOL, IATA, etc. So, if they become bankrupt you won’t lose your money, learn more about your rights Here.

There are a number of scams which became widespread in recent times regarding tickets, for further advice please read about them via the following LINK.

 

Always use common sense; it is your best guard.

 

The safety of our members is of paramount importance to us. If you have any concerns, suspicions or issues while using the Celtic Zone website; we value your feedback in reporting them to us. Thank you

The above does not constitute any form of legal advice and we cannot be held responsible for any actions taken on the guidelines shown above.