We’ve all been stung on Craigslist or eBay – an iPod that turns up without the insides, or nothing turns up at all – these so called harmless little frauds that go on thousands of times a day which no one really talks about (it’s a fact that most people would prefer not to admit that they’d been duped in such a way)

But more recently, some particularly nasty things have been happening. Nancy Grace recently highlighted the tragic case of a nanny going missing after answering an ad in Craigslist, and now the couple here who have been caught out thanks to their ignorance of thinking they could get away with a crime and not get traced via their IP address.

Just to recall, Brandon and Amber Herbert placed an ad in Craigslist which said that all the belongings at a house were free for the taking – they then joined in with others to claim goods.

Though this is a comical end to a particularly nasty hoax, the fact remains that the public at large are extremely vulnerable to crime that takes place as a matter of course on auctions sites like eBay, and yes even Craigslist.

The pre-owned industry on the internet would be vastly bigger if there were any effective measures to protect us from con merchants who have now made the art of a con into a multi-million dollar online business.

Perhaps if the portals (who are worth billions) were made responsible for fraud that took place on their sites (like an online retailer would be responsible if they sold you something, took your money and it never showed up).

I think they would be spending much more time trying to solve the issue which has done nothing but escalated exponentially over the last few years.

In an era when the public should be encouraged to be greener and buy pre-owned products, it’s hardly surprising that the market is so tiny compared to the new market.

People have got to feel more confident about online pre-owned purchases if they are to start doing it regularly. The second hand car market would never have taken off in this state.

When we launch trade 2 save will be attempting to increase confidence in the pre-owned electronics market by acting as a retailer as opposed to a third party portal who have no legal obligations to either sellers or buyers. Customers will be able to buy, sell and trade Games, DVDs, consumer electronics and Computer Hardware, confident that they aren’t subject to a scam.

trade 2 save will buy the products, test them and grade them, and then sell them on as pre-owned with a store warranty that customers will be able to trust.

With eBay and Craigslist having done so little over the past decade to tidy up their acts, it could well be that customers start turning to a new breed of pre-owned online retailer who they can trust and save money with.