FaunaClassifieds - View Single Post - Full name requirement in the classifieds section.

01-29-2009, 06:33 AM

If the seller was a corporation or partnership, would the name of the company be enough or would you require an actual person's name?

You might be building a false sense of security with such a requirement: if someone with no last name is bent on scamming, your requirement for a full name would simply lead them to supply you with a fake full name. How much research are you willing to do before you accept a name? Birth certificate? Driver's license? And the more you require, the more the customer can say that he justifiably relied on YOU when he sent in his money.

A scammed customer would then look to YOU when the name was exposed as a fake; perhaps expecting that you had some responsibility in finding for him the true real name.

I'm not saying 'buyer beware', it would be good to provide some info, but I think it might be far easier to pen a cautionary statement to buyers stickied to the top of the classifieds, to help the particularly gullible with some basic ideas. Many classifieds have cautions now about payments sent or received such as cashier's checks and Western Union.

01-29-2009, 06:33 AM	#3
Lucille	If the seller was a corporation or partnership, would the name of the company be enough or would you require an actual person's name? You might be building a false sense of security with such a requirement: if someone with no last name is bent on scamming, your requirement for a full name would simply lead them to supply you with a fake full name. How much research are you willing to do before you accept a name? Birth certificate? Driver's license? And the more you require, the more the customer can say that he justifiably relied on YOU when he sent in his money. A scammed customer would then look to YOU when the name was exposed as a fake; perhaps expecting that you had some responsibility in finding for him the true real name. I'm not saying 'buyer beware', it would be good to provide some info, but I think it might be far easier to pen a cautionary statement to buyers stickied to the top of the classifieds, to help the particularly gullible with some basic ideas. Many classifieds have cautions now about payments sent or received such as cashier's checks and Western Union.