How does the marketplace work?

Sellers post their listings, and you contact them or buy directly online. Every listing goes through moderation before it is published.

Is online payment protected?

Yes. The platform holds the money and only releases it to the seller once the transaction is confirmed. If something goes wrong, the payout is frozen while we review.

How do I post a listing?

Create an account, click “Post an ad”, add your photos, category and price. Your listing goes live after review.

How much does it cost?

Posting a listing is free. Optional featured packages are available, and a commission is only charged on sales paid online.

How do I avoid scams?

Never pay outside the platform, be wary of unusually low prices, and prefer in-person handover in a public place. Report any suspicious listing.

What if there is a dispute?

Open a dispute from your order: the seller payout is suspended during the review and moderation decides based on the evidence.

Avoiding scams on classified ads

Scams account for only a tiny minority of classified-ad exchanges — but they are organised, repetitive and surprisingly stable: the same scripts have been circulating for years, barely refreshed. That is their weakness. Anyone who knows the five warning signs and the three classic scenarios escapes most of the risk.

This guide catalogues them, on the buyer's side as well as the seller's, then lays out the reflexes that protect you and the steps to take if the damage is done. There is no paranoia in any of this: only simple rules that let good deals through and stop the bad ones.

The five warning signs

A price far below the market with no reason given — the "bargain" is the universal bait.
A seller "abroad" promising delivery after payment — you will see neither the item nor your money.
A deposit requested before any meeting, "to reserve it".
A payment link outside the platform — by definition outside any protection.
Artificial urgency: "someone else is interested, decide tonight".

A single sign should be enough to slow you down. Two signs combined: walk away, whatever the asking price.

Three scenarios that come back every week

The discounted car from abroad. A vehicle from the vehicles category listed 40% under market, an owner "transferred overseas", a shipping company that will "hold your money in escrow". Everything is fake, down to the company's website. No serious car is ever sold without a test drive.
The ghost rental. A flat from the real-estate category at an unbeatable rent, photos stolen from a genuine listing, and a "landlord" demanding the deposit before the viewing. Absolute rule: not one euro before you have viewed the property and verified the landlord's identity.
The locked smartphone. A phone from the high-tech category, flawless in photos, but stolen, blacklisted or tied to a stranger's account. The five checks before buying a smartphone detect it in two minutes — insist on being allowed to run them.

House keys handed over in person — Keys only change hands in genuine rentals: until you have viewed the property, not one euro should leave your account.

On the seller's side: fake payments

Sellers are targeted just as much as buyers. The great classic is the overpayment: the buyer "sends" more than the price, fake bank confirmation attached, then asks for the difference back — which you would refund with your very real money. Variants of the same trap: the doctored transfer screenshot, the fake email saying "the funds are blocked until the parcel is shipped", the QR code to scan that actually authorises a withdrawal. One principle sweeps them all away: a payment only exists once it is confirmed inside the platform or credited to your bank account — never on the strength of an image or an email. The same caution applies to shipping: only send the parcel once the platform shows the payment as secured, never on the buyer's word or on a courier email you did not initiate yourself.

Card payment on a terminal — Protected payment holds the funds until reception is confirmed: the fake transfer loses all its grip.

Handshake between buyer and seller — Meeting in person, in a public place, remains the best filter: most fraudsters never take that risk.

The reflexes that protect you

Stay in the platform's messaging: it timestamps everything and serves as evidence in a dispute. The fraudster always pushes towards an external channel.
Pay through protected payment: funds are held until you confirm reception — the full walkthrough is here.
Meet in a public place, in daytime, and test the item on the spot before paying.
Never pay a deposit off-platform, to anyone, for any reason.

If the damage is done

React fast and in order. Report the listing and the profile: moderation reviews every report within 24 hours, and a fraudulent account, once flagged, falls together with all its listings. If you paid through protected payment, open a dispute: the held funds will not move until it is resolved. If the money left by ordinary bank transfer, call your bank immediately — a recall attempted within the first hours has a real chance of succeeding — then file a police report, messaging screenshots in hand. Keep every exchange, every reference and every receipt: a complete file speeds up moderation, the dispute and the bank all at once.

Caution never blocks a good deal

The vast majority of listings are honest, and fraudsters give themselves away precisely because they refuse what every normal seller accepts: the meeting, the test, the protected payment. The rules fit on one line — nothing before seeing, nothing off-platform, never under pressure. Armed with these reflexes, browse the listings: the good deals are waiting for those who can tell them apart from the bait.

Classified-ad scams: how to spot and avoid them