How to use SA’s Second Hand Goods Act to your advantage when buying stuff online

Buying or selling means a certain amount of risk – you’d only have to speak to a friend to hear of an incident where a criminal has deployed their scam via a classified ad. Online, this risk is augmented tenfold, opening up innumerable opportunities for theft, hacking and scamming. To accompany this, the evolution towards efficiency and ease of use has shifted a substantial amount of activity to the mobile spectrum, a digital medium that demonstrates rudimentary security measures at best, and is heavily reliant on the user to uphold these.

Despite advice available to avoid shifting from an innocent trade to a potentially dangerous scenario, crimes within classifieds are on the rise. Gumtree South Africa recently listed its take on the top most common online scams – including the usual suspects of fraudulent rentals and “too good to be true” goods. When the regular scams fail, however, lesser-known tactics are implemented. The “company representative scheme” details how an impersonator of a reputable company sends out emails for the purchase of false goods, most commonly cars. Once the target makes a deposit, the deal disappears.

This is a variation of the “false payment” method of simply cancelling a cheque to the honest seller once the scamming buyer has collected the goods on a false pretense of payment.

Not only do criminals post adverts to bait bargain hunters, there’s also an alarming rate of dodgy respondents to classifieds ads. Their aim is to gather personal information for identity theft and fraud and credit card fraud, amongst other criminal activity. Personal information is easily gathered in the trusted online capacity of classifieds ads sites, with plenty of users still naïve to the many scams initiated every minute and perpetuated by lackadaisical security measures. Sellers also don’t expect to receive responses from scam or con artists.

The Second Hand Goods Act

It’s precisely how it sounds – legislation to regulate the trade of second-hand goods by recording the transaction. It requires that traders be registered as a dealer with the South African Police Service and that dealers keep a detailed log “in the register the prescribed particulars regarding every acquisition or disposal of second-hand goods.” These “particulars” include the full names, contact addresses and phone numbers of the person, the manner in which this identity was verified, and the person’s identity number.

The trading of any goods for a profit is considered second-hand goods dealing. The act therefore extends beyond popular dealers such as Cash Crusaders and Cash Converters to remote dealers who
operate from home.

Strictly only second-hand goods purchasing

The act will affect you even if you’re only making purchases in the second-hand trading industry. It aims to protect buyers from obtaining a stolen item, therefore demanding visibility regarding each party’s identity.

The act protects all parties involved by identity verification, but it’s the logistics of this process that pose the greatest challenge. Currently in South Africa identity verification is a fresh concept.

Identity protection appears to be less of social concern than it ought to, amongst endless news stories indicating its growing presence in our society. When considering the nature of online purchasing, verifying the identities of each trader is paramount to ensuring safe transactions.