Almost everyone on this site is part of the modeling community and thus will tend to try and conduct themselves in a manner accordingly, but there are always those few...

To reduce the risk of being stung with a scam or a bad transaction, here are a few suggestions we have listed to help you keep your transactions clean and safe.

Please Note: these are not rules, but just suggestions to help you make better decisions and they are in no particular order.

Things to do for smoother transactions:

• Remember that when buying or selling items on RC Trader, the transaction is between you and the buyer/seller directly. The more information you can gather about an item or person, the safer the transaction. 
• Once you have agreed on a price for an item, make sure you get all the seller's details and store them. Once the seller removes their listing, it can be hard to contact the seller again.
• Making a copy of the listing can also help if a dispute arises over what was contained in the listing.
• Wherever possible, we suggest using PayPal for transaction payments. If the seller's email address is different from the address they are asking you to pay the money to, you may like to ask why.
• If a buyer tells you that they've sent you funds via Paypal, confirm that the funds been received by logging into your PayPal account to confirm payment actually has been received.
• To avoid the buyer claims that they haven't received the item that you've sent, always send your items at least via registered post. We also suggest couriers can be more secure and often more cost-effective. We often use www.smartsend.com.au.
• If you want more security, then ask the Seller to use RCTrader.com's built-in eScrow system. The system will hold the Buyer's funds in eScrow until the Buyer receives the item. Once the item is received, the funds are automatically released to the Seller. This is by far the most secure way to transact on RCTrader.com. details of the eScrow system are in the FAQ pages.

Be wary of transactions or users that:

• All RC Trader contact emails generated by our system include the sender's IP address and IP Geo-location. Use this as a guide only, but it is a good way of seeing if the email was sent from someone within Australia.
• Beware of sellers asking you to pay via Western Union, Money Gram and/or transfers to overseas bank accounts or any other form of money transfer that can remain anonymous. If you are requested to do this by the seller, it is almost always a scam.
• If asked for ID details such as Medicare number, driver's license number, etc for "verification" or "security" purposes in order to receive the address details of the seller. We would suggest you provide any such details with care.
• If the potential seller has poor English / grammar / spelling AND does not have an Australian MOBILE telephone number you can contact him/her on, it is possible they are a scammer. Australian landlines (NOT mobiles) can be compromised via the use of a Skype re-route by overseas scammers. Email addresses are no way of confirming a user's validity. If the advertiser wishes to be contacted by telephone and refuses to supply a mobile telephone number, please be cautious.

Note: Australian law in a very basic interpretation has an overriding premise; "buyer beware". If you do not feel comfortable buying an item from someone, be aware that as the buyer, you have very few legal recourses when buying second-hand items. So make sure you have all the information you need and are happy to go ahead with a transaction before you make payment