When negative Google reviews started popping up about Helen’s* medical practice, she felt that peculiar mix of outrage and helplessness that comes with being targeted by unknown assailants lurking somewhere in the digital world.Ìý

Helen’s a busy doctor based in Melbourne, and Google reviews is something she begrudgingly engages with to make sure her practice is on the consumer radar. She’s fine with letting prospective patients know how other patients evaluate her and her team’s services.Ìý

As long as the reviews are real.Ìý

Since recently activating the service she had received two positive Google reviews from actual patients who used their real names, so everything seemed to be working.Ìý

But the three negative reviews left shortly after this about her reception staff took her by surprise. Posted by nameless avatars, they caused the practice’s star rating to plummet. It meant that, at a glance, her medical practice now had low ratings. Google reviews did not seem like such a good idea after all.Ìý

“I didn’t know who they were and they weren’t even complaining about me,” Helen says.Ìý

She was sure the avatar reviews were fake. The obvious course of action was to contact Google and have them removed. She sent an email to a ‘contact us’ address she found on a Google page. And nothing happened.Ìý

“Google was terrible,” Helen says. “They never replied. It’s impossible to get any communication with anyone from Google.” 

Review removal service to the rescue 

Someone finally did get in touch by email, however, from a business that Helen initially thought must be Google itself.Ìý

“I thought, all right, they’re finally getting back to me,” Helen says. But what followed seemed odd.Ìý

To Helen’s relief, the emailer offered to take down the fake negative reviews, but it would cost her: 

• $460 for a ‘one-time listing refresh’, which would wipe out all of Helen’s reviews 
• $170 a month for ‘annual refresh protection’, where any reviews that dropped the overall star rating below three would be removed for a year 
• $410 for a ‘permanent listing deletion’, involving the total removal of Helen’s Google reviews business listing.Ìý

Helen couldn’t believe the world’s reigning tech titan was shaking her down for cash. She got right back to them, saying “I strongly believe that it is Google’s responsibility to remove fake reviews and that the owner of the listing should not have to pay to remove people’s fake reviews”.

Cashing in on Google users left in the lurch

Shortly after this heated exchange, Helen came to understand she wasn’t talking to Google but to a ‘reputation management company’ called Reviews Solved. Alarm bells rang. She wondered how they had gotten her email address. And the timing of her dispute with Google and the unsolicited contact by Reviews Solved seemed like more than a coincidence.Ìý

In its marketing pitch, the company claimed to be founded on the principle of standing up for people in Helen’s situation, telling her “we believe a review platform should not allow non-customers to post reviews. This is the reason many, including us, feel Google is unfair towards business owners”.

Reviews Solved explained to Helen that it has systems in place that detect Google listings with low star ratings and multiple negative reviews, which is why it had contacted her. But the consultation on offer was less high-tech. One of the strategies Reviews Solved recommends, for instance, is to have family and friends post positive reviews in order to lift a business’s star ratings.Ìý

Once Helen realised it wasn’t Google, she wondered if the business might have posted the negative reviews themselves and then offered to remove them for a fee.Ìý

Reviews Solved kept emailing, trying to get Helen to enlist its services, but she stopped responding.Ìý

We reached out to Reviews Solved for comment, but didn’t hear back.Ìý

Fake reviews are a real problem

We asked Google Australia for its position on businesses that claim to be able to take down negative Google reviews. Are such firms necessary or potentially legitimate given the well-known difficulties of getting in touch with Google about such matters?  

The Google spokesperson didn’t address this specific question, but confirmed that hundreds of millions of fake Google reviews get posted around the world every year.Ìý

According to the company, 170 million of them were removed in 2023, thanks to new machine learning models as well as “manual techniques”.Ìý

That would mean huge numbers of unauthorised reviewers are blithely ignoring Google company policy, which holds that reviews must be based on real experiences.Ìý

“We have clear policies that prohibit fake reviews and inappropriate content, and our automated systems and trained operators work around the clock to monitor for suspicious behaviour,” the Google spokesperson told us.Ìý

Google also said that “the vast majority of reviews on Google are authentic, and when we find policy violations, we take action – ranging from content removal to account suspension and even litigation”.

ACCC weighs in

Removing genuine reviews violates consumer law

The matter of fake reviews and review removal services is of current interest to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). In a report released in December last year, the agency detailed an enforcement action against 24 businesses that offered to remove negative reviews as well as other review management services.Ìý

The ACCC makes it clear that taking down or offering to remove genuine negative reviews is a violation of consumer law, as is posting fake ones. But fake negative reviews showing up on your business profile is a different problem, one that platforms such as Google reviews are responsible for managing and helping you resolve, the ACCC says.Ìý

These platforms “should ensure they have robust policies in place to prevent the manipulation of reviews”, a spokesperson told us, adding that the agency is well aware that consumers and small businesses often find it hard to resolve issues with digital platforms, including trying to get them to remove fake reviews.Ìý

Digital platforms should have “mandatory internal dispute resolution standards”

A 2022 report from the ACCC’s five-year Digital Platform Services Inquiry recommended that businesses such as Google have “mandatory internal dispute resolution standards” that would apply to complaints like Helen’s, and that consumers have access to external dispute resolution services as well.Ìý

The financial sector, for instance, has the Australian Financial Complaints Authority. But no such body exists to handle complaints about digital platforms.Ìý

The federal government announced late last year that it expects digital platforms to have voluntary dispute resolution standards in place by July 2024, but it remains to be seen whether the platforms will comply.Ìý 

Meanwhile, the trustworthiness of Google reviews has been badly tarnished for Helen. “It’s made me a lot more skeptical,” she says. “They don’t seem to mean anything.” 

Helen was still trying to have the fake avatar reviews removed at the time of publication.Ìý

*Names have been changed.

The post Why is it so hard to take down fake Google reviews?  appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog.

On this page:

• What is PayID?
• Why are people using PayID?
• How is PayID being used to scam people?
• Why are scammers targeting PayID?
• How to spot and avoid a PayID scam
• Is it safe to use PayID?

It’s been hailed as a way to keep us safe from scams, but PayID has now become a weapon in criminal attempts to fleece Australians of their hard-earned money.

Experts say scammers are exploiting a lack of awareness of this payment system in order to rip Australians off.

Here, we’ll explain what PayID is, how and why it’s being hijacked by scammers, and how you can use it safely.

What is PayID?

PayID is a function offered by over 100 banks and financial institutions across Australia which allows you to send money to somebody just by using their phone number, email address or some other identifier.

Most banks offer PayID as a transfer method on their app or website and the other person usually receives the money within a minute.

The system allows you to make sure your money is going to the right person or organisation, as the verification process when entering a new PayID shows you the name associated with that identifier.

You can also receive money by giving others a phone number, email address or other identifier that you’ve registered as your PayID with your bank.

“It’s a way for you to get your money quickly, instantly, and more easily and safely,” says Dr Angel Zhong, an associate professor and finance researcher at RMIT, who says she finds using PayID easier than sharing BSB and account number information.

Why are people using PayID?

PayID was launched in 2018 as a function of the New Payments Platform (NPP), a system designed by banks to allow for faster transactions in Australia. According to the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), by 2022, around 10 million PayIDs had been registered.

RBA research from the same year found around half of Australians had heard of the service and 30% had used it in the preceding 12 months.

ÌÇÐÄVlog member Andrew Ward occasionally sells second-hand bikes and other equipment through online marketplaces and uses PayID, saying he finds it convenient.

“It just happens instantly,” he explains, describing his experience of using the service to receive money from buyers. He also finds it safer than using cash when trading expensive items.

As well as being more convenient than BSB and account number transfers (which require you to correctly enter 15 digits), PayID has also been championed by the RBA for reducing the risk of fraud by showing you the name of the person you’ll be paying.

Australian Payments Plus (AP+), the organisation responsible for PayID and the NPP, says PayID’s scam-stopping powers are evident in the fact that one in four people using it have either stopped or amended a payment because the process allowed them to see they had entered incorrect details.

How is PayID being used to scam people?

PayID scams were responsible for over $260,000 in losses in 2022. So how is a service endorsed as a protection against scams being used to rip people off?

You’re most likely to encounter a PayID scam when selling second-hand goods on online classified sites such as Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace. The criminals running the scam take to these forums to try to sow and exploit confusion about how PayID works. Here’s how the scam typically goes, although there are a number of variations.

1. Scammer asks to buy your product (usually very quickly)

Scammers will contact you, saying they want to buy your item. They likely then won’t go through the usual motions of online trading, such as haggling over price or trying to arrange to inspect the product before purchasing it.

ÌÇÐÄVlog member Beth Keating encountered many of what she believes were PayID scammers when attempting to sell unwanted furniture.

“The first inkling of a problem was the speed at which these potential buyers responded, some in under 10 seconds,” she recalls, picking up on a phenomenon experts say occurs due to scammers using specially built software to trawl classified sites for listings.

“They also usually didn’t want to inspect the items or couldn’t inspect them and requested that you put up a ‘sold’ sign immediately,” she adds.

2. Scammer insists on paying with PayID

Beth also soon encountered another hallmark of the scam – the purported buyer wanting to pay for the item in advance and only using PayID.

“That also made me suspicious about some of those people, that they would not entertain any other form of money transfer except for PayID.”

3. Scammer claims there’s an issue with your PayID

Andrew Ward has also come across plenty of suspicious queries about PayID in the course of his selling and says the nature of the scam starts to emerge when you provide the scammer with your PayID.

“They might say they have a business or professional [PayID] account or it didn’t come through and you need to check your email,” he explains. “If you check, there’s an email that looks very much like a bank email saying there’s a problem with your PayID”

These emails or SMS messages are made to look like they’re coming from a bank or PayID itself, but are actually from the scammer and are designed to lend weight to their claims that there is a problem with the seller’s PayID.

Scammers will commonly say, as in Andrew’s experience, that your PayID needs to be “upgraded” to a “business” account.

The fake emails and messages deployed as part of the scam will usually direct you to collaborate with the phoney buyer to resolve the issue – a process which will involve an extra payment.

4. Scammer claims they’ve resolved the issue and asks for reimbursement

Once you’ve received this phoney message, the scammer will then usually say they have paid for the necessary upgrade out of their own pocket and ask you to reimburse them, often for hundreds of dollars.Ìý

They may also claim to have a minimum transaction limit on their account that is more than the cost of the product being exchanged and ask you to reimburse the difference.

In reality, PayID is free and doesn’t have these sorts of conditions or account tiers. It will also never contact users directly.Ìý

“Any email or SMS purporting to be from PayID is a scam,” an AP+ spokesperson tells ÌÇÐÄVlog.Ìý

“Consumers will never have to pay money to receive a payment via PayID.”

Therefore, any money sent to a buyer in an effort to smooth out a PayID transaction is going to a scammer.

Why are scammers targeting PayID?

ÌÇÐÄVlog has spoken to several finance and cyber security experts and their common conclusion is that a lack of awareness of PayID among consumers is leading to it being co-opted by criminals.

“We don’t know enough about PayID to reassure ourselves that there is no such thing as upgrading, that no one will contact us from PayID and there’s no charges involved in using it,” says Professor Steve Worthington from Swinburne University’s business school.

The RBA is also acknowledging a lack of awareness of PayID, recently noting consumers have been slower to adopt it than it had expected.

Zhong says people who don’t know anything about PayID and haven’t yet registered with the service are a prime target for scammers.

“They can offer it and use it to lure people into their scam by saying: ‘OK, I’m using PayID, I will help you activate your PayID.'”

Experts say these vulnerabilities could be reduced if the organisations responsible for PayID marketed and educated people about it more effectively.

“I think PayID and the NPP could do a much better job of promoting it,” argues Paul Haskell-Dowland, professor of cybersecurity practice at Edith Cowan University.

“I think they’re actually quite well-placed to do a national-based campaign, perhaps in tandem with the banks to really push the benefits of the platform.”

An AP+ spokesperson tells ÌÇÐÄVlog uptake of PayID continues to grow, saying there were 18 million PayIDs in Australia as of November 2023. They also say scammers are targeting the service because it’s trusted by the public.

Additionally, AP+ says it’s carrying out “marketing campaigns” and working with banks and government to ensure “simple messages” about how PayID does and doesn’t work reach “as many people as possible”.

How to spot and avoid a PayID scam

Trying to sell something online? Protect yourself from criminals by getting to know the signs of a PayID scam.

Beware of prospective buyers who:

• contact you very soon after you’ve posted your ad, wanting to buy the item without inspecting it or negotiating on price
• are keen to pay for the item straight away without seeing it and say someone else will come and pick it up later
• only want to pay for the item using PayID and won’t consider other methods.

If you’ve given your PayID to a potential buyer, be on alert for the following:

• The buyer claiming you don’t have the right PayID account for the transaction and saying it needs to be upgraded.
• The buyer claiming there is some other issue with your PayID account and telling you to look for an email or message from PayID or your bank.
• An email or message claiming to be from PayID or your bank saying there’s an issue with your PayID account or that it needs to be upgraded and that this can be resolved for a cost.
• The buyer saying they will pay out of their own pocket to resolve an apparent issue with the PayID process and asking you to reimburse them.
• The buyer claiming you need to pay them to somehow facilitate the PayID process.
• The buyer offering to help you set up PayID if you don’t have it already.

These are all signs of a potential PayID scam. PayID is a free service that doesn’t allow you to pay for “upgrades” or require any payment to set up, register or otherwise operate. You will also never receive communication from PayID directly.

If you encounter anybody claiming otherwise, break off contact with them immediately, as they are likely trying to steal your money or personal information.

If you have lost money or information to a scam, there are steps you should take straight away. See more with our guide to the five steps to take if you’ve been scammed.

Is it safe to use PayID?

If you follow the advice above, PayID can be safe to use and you can’t be scammed just by giving someone your PayID.

“If somebody has your PayID-registered email address or mobile phone number, the only thing they can do with that is pay money into your account,” explains Paul Haskell-Dowland.

You can reduce your risk of being targeted by a PayID scam by only using it to pay (or receive payment) from someone who is with you in person.

In the case of buying or selling items, this means meeting up with the other party and conducting the PayID transfer while the product is being exchanged.

PayID scammers will avoid doing this, often because, contrary to their claims, they aren’t located in your local area and may even be overseas.Ìý

Rather, they will want to pay in advance and remotely, so they’re better able to confuse you from afar with impersonation emails or text messages.

Experts do note, however, that it’s important to remember that meeting in person comes with its own risks and so does sharing any personal information.

Because our PayIDs are often our phone numbers or email addresses, they can be used by people to distribute unwanted material, such as spam texts or emails.

Therefore, it’s important to consider the risk of this when sharing your PayID with someone.

The post PayID scams: How criminals are exploiting this ‘safe’ payment system appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog.

It may surprise you to learn that price gouging – jacking up prices for essential goods when supplies are low – is technically not illegal in most cases. At least not in Australia.Ìý

But we’re guessing you’re well aware that the practice is widely considered deeply unethical and downright nasty, especially in times when a potentially deadly virus is infecting the community at an alarming rate.Ìý

ÌÇÐÄVlog has a simple message for anyone engaging in price gouging during the coronavirus crisis (or any time for that matter): don’t even think about it.Ìý

This message goes double for online platforms that have enabled price gouging, including Facebook, eBay and Gumtree.Ìý

But appeals to our collective conscience haven’t stopped many from taking advantage of high demand and tight supply, in effect kicking the community when it’s down.Ìý

Through our social media and other channels we’ve heard about face masks being sold for 10 or 20 times their regular price, hand sanitiser prices doubling, chest freezers more than quadrupling in price, and staples like potatoes suddenly becoming very expensive. And that’s just the very short list.Ìý

In better news, both eBay Australia and Gumtree appear to be coming around to doing the right thing.Ìý

eBay Australia commits to removing inflated listings

We contacted eBay Australia yesterday about the many incidents of price gouging that we’d seen and were told by a spokesperson that it was in the process of taking down listings of items like toilet paper, face masks and hand sanitiser “at grossly inflated prices” as well as restricting the accounts of online price gougers.Ìý

But keeping up with the bad actors will be a tall order, the spokesperson says.Ìý

“Our teams in Australia and globally are working around the clock to manually pull down hundreds-of-thousands of inflated listings, but are struggling to keep up. While we take every step to be vigilant against listings that break our rules, eBay is Australia’s largest online marketplace with 1.4-billion listings from millions of sellers around the world.”

The spokesperson adds that eBay “may take even more drastic action in the coming days such as blocking any listings of face masks, hand sanitiser and toilet paper to all but a handful of authorised sellers”.Ìý

Gumtree moves to block price gouging

After the original publication of this story yesterday, Gumtree got in touch to say it too is putting measures in place to stop the price gougers.Ìý

“To curb pricing practices that run counter to the community-minded spirit of Gumtree, from Friday 20 March, Gumtree will temporarily ban listings for health care masks, including N95/N100 and surgical masks, hand sanitiser/gel, disinfecting wipes and toilet paper,” a spokesperson tells us.* 

ÌÇÐÄVlog was unable to contact the Australian offices of Facebook.Ìý

_{*Updated 20 March 2020}

When retailers mislead 

There are some practices around price gouging that are illegal, as the ACCC makes clear.Ìý

The regulator doesn’t control pricing, but it does have a say on how businesses treat their customers.Ìý

One practice that’s especially relevant to our current situation is when retailers lie about the reasons prices have gone up.Ìý

If it’s a fabrication, it’s a violation of the Australian Consumer Law.Ìý

We’ve heard of some businesses trying to explain massive price hikes as a way of controlling demand and preventing stockpiling. We don’t buy it, and neither should you.Ìý

Restricting the quantities people can buy would achieve the same result and have the added benefit of not seeing customers get ripped off.Ìý

But we should also bear in mind that not all price hikes are evidence of gouging.Ìý

In some cases, higher costs could be legitimately contributing to higher prices, so some increases may be fair.

Whatever the case, store staff are rarely responsible for product pricing, so let’s not take the frustrations we all feel out on them.Ìý

If retailers are unnecessarily inflating prices on products that are critical to the health or safety of vulnerable consumers, that could be ruled unconscionable conduct by the ACCC.Ìý

Whether or not the kind of behaviour we’ve seen falls under this prohibition remains to be seen.

Online marketplace on notice

Much of the price gouging activity has been happening online on secondary marketplace sites like Facebook, eBay and Gumtree.Ìý

Many would-be entrepreneurs, it seems, come out of the woodwork in moments like these.Ìý 

In most US states, price gouging is illegal, and many major platforms are reportedly taking down price gouging posts across the USA.Ìý

ÌÇÐÄVlog is calling on the Australian counterparts of these and other tech companies to follow eBay and Gumtree’s lead and do the same.Ìý

We’re calling on the big secondary marketplaces to come clean about the action they’re taking to stop price gouging.Ìý

We’re calling for a clear and transparent policy across the online industry aimed at removing ads or posts with high prices for essential goods like face masks, hand sanitiser, toiletries, medicines and food.Ìý

These big companies should have systems and processes in place to remove these ads quickly, as is happening in other markets.Ìý

The ACCC has said it is getting in touch with these Australian platforms with a similar message.Ìý

Why is price gouging happening? 

The Australian food and grocery industry has made one thing clear over the past few weeks: the shortage of goods has been created by panic buying, not by an underlying shortage of product.Ìý

There is plenty to go around, the industry says, if everyone takes only as much as they need and avoids hoarding.Ìý

The irony, of course, is that the very people so worried about shortages have created the shortages (in much the same way that people worried about a share market crash end up causing one).Ìý

We back the position that many politicians and businesses have taken on panic buying: just don’t do it.

ÌÇÐÄVlog on the case

We hold out hope that price gouging and panic buying will soon come to an overdue end, and that the better angels of our nature will prevail.Ìý

In the meantime, we’ve set up a on ÌÇÐÄVlog Community and are reaching out to our campaigns supporters in an effort to keep sellers honest.Ìý

You can also let us know if you spot a price gouger on our .Ìý

We want Australians to be our eyes and ears, to help us keep businesses honest and prevent sellers big and small from making a bad situation worse.Ìý

The post Coronavirus and price gouging – let’s put a stop to it appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog.

If you’ve just had a big clear-out of old clothes, books, gadgets and more, you might be wondering what to do with your unwanted items.Ìý

Charity shops such as and the are always after good-quality items. But there are also a number of online sites beyond eBay and Gumtree that let you share, trade, buy and swap goods so you can free up space, make some cash and meet the neighbours.

Buy, sell, swap sites

Here’s a selection of sites, groups and pages we’ve come across that let you share, trade and swap goods.

Facebook Pay It Forward groups

Pay It Forward Facebook groups are thriving online communities where people post items they’re giving away free, or items they’re in need of, in the spirit of giving and sharing.

Adelaide’s Pay It Forward, or ‘PIF’, Facebook group has more than 42,900 members with more than 10 posts a day. In NSW, the Marrickville Pay It Forward group has 9600 members, the Blue Mountains PIF group has 17,800, and the Tamworth PIF group has 5700. It’s more than likely there’s one near you.

Buy Swap and Sell Facebook groups

With a broader remit and sometimes larger communities than the PIF groups, Buy Sell Swap groups let people exchange new or used items. Some don’t allow business-related posts, but others do. Again, you can post requests for things you might be looking for. (We saw a post about two lost puppies and another from someone who wanted a concert ticket.)

These are popular groups with impressive membership numbers. The Sydney Buy Swap and Sell group has more than 83,000 members, Melbourne’s Western Suburbs group has 62,000, and Sydney’s Penrith group has 32,000.

Hard rubbish Facebook groups

For those who like to fossick and rescue useful items from landfill, there are Facebook pages dedicated to finding out when and where council hard rubbish collection is happening. For example, members of Sydney Hard Rubbish, Hard Rubbish Melbourne and Perth Kerbside Collections know exactly when to take a stroll around their neighbourhood (or a more affluent neighbourhood) to spot a dining table, rug or armchair to lug home.

Streetbank

Members of can share goods and skills within their local community, “making the world a bit nicer” (according to the website). It’s in need of more members to make it really useful, but you can request items or offer a skill or something to lend or give away.

Community Exchange System

The is an online global network of communities exchanging goods, skills and services locally and remotely without using traditional money. Instead, credits and debits are banked to the members’ CES accounts. There are 38 Australian exchange groups registered and 750 across the world.

Freecycle

The entirely nonprofit has been around since 2003 and, according to its website, now has more than nine million members across more than 130 countries. Organised into local groups, members offer unwanted goods for free or make ‘wanted’ requests.

Ziilch

You can give away or find free second-hand items on , but there’s a limited selection.

Your consumer rights when using these sites

Your consumer guarantee rights under the Australian Consumer Law may not apply when buying items through Facebook forums because the transactions would probably be characterised as private transactions, not made in trade and commerce.

And where a commercial enterprise that provides goods to rent would be required to give you a repair or replacement if the item were faulty, it’s not so clear cut when you rent through a crowd-sourced platform. Renting goods could be viewed as a private transaction between two people.

Nevertheless, platforms like these do have some statutory obligations. For example, the prohibition on misleading and deceptive conduct and false or misleading representations would apply. Equally, if you’re paying money to rent your goods online, the platform would be providing you with a service, and the consumer guarantees in relation to services would arguably still apply.

Other potential risks for using peer-to-peer buy, swap, sell and sharing sites include the user damaging or losing a borrowed or rented item; people not picking up or returning items when they say they will; and sellers misrepresenting what they’re selling. Always read the group’s rules and guidelines so you understand your rights when using these platforms.

Meeting like-minded people

ÌÇÐÄVlog content creator Alice Richard regularly buys and trades clothes and other items for her child and herself on various Sydney pay it forward and buy, swap and sell Facebook groups.

She says, “I’ve met loads of lovely people through these groups because I go to their houses to pick things up and often end up having a chat – and they usually have a similar ethos about sustainability and material things.

“It takes the guilt out of purchases, and it’s more affordable to buy a ‘new’ outfit. There’s also a nice element of chance: you stumble across things that you may not have been looking for, some unique pieces.”

Reinventing the ‘sharing economy’

Rachel Botsman, author of What’s Mine is Yours (2010), has researched the collaborative behaviours and trust mechanics inherent in these trading and swapping systems. She says technology is enabling trust between strangers and we can now mimic, in our global village, the ties that used to happen through face-to-face contact.

“Social networks and real-time technologies are taking us back,” she says. “We’re bartering, trading, swapping, sharing, but they’re being reinvented into dynamic and appealing forms.”

A report from the Melbourne Networked Society Institute, Mapping the Melbourne Sharing Economy, attributed the rise of this sharing economy to steady increases in consumption over preceding decades. And the sharing, loaning, swapping and trading of stuff has been enabled thanks to the technical processes established by platforms such as eBay, Freecycle, Craigslist, Gumtree and Amazon, and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

But according to the report, the sharing economy also has roots in the so-called ‘open source movement’, where software and goods are made freely available, and the political idea of the ‘commons’, where resources are freely available to all.

Some people are drawn to these platforms to make money, others are there to find a new use for their goods that are idle – many are motivated by sustainability and a desire to reduce their consumption.

Tackling consumption and waste

This redistributing of unused goods that otherwise clog up our houses, or landfill, extends the life of the item and reduces waste and resource use.

Alice Richard says for her “it’s about being able to affordably have a child in Sydney, but the bigger picture is reducing how much stuff we have and how much we get rid of”.

These sites don’t just help us unload our houses of goods either – they can be rich picking grounds for sourcing specialist items. For example, there’s a popular Facebook group called ‘Sydney Retro Recycle Buy Sell and Swap’, and Facebook is also home to fashion brand-specific Buy Sell Swap groups.

You can also share or borrow goods through platforms such as Streetbank, instead of buying and storing them yourself.Ìý

The post Buy sell swap sites appeared first on ÌÇÐÄVlog.

On this page:

• Auction it
• Online classifieds
• Offline options
• Giving away your stuff

You don’t want to send them to landfill, yet you can’t return or re-gift them. So what can you do with them instead? The answer could be right at your fingertips: just hit , , , , , or , and you might even pick up a bit of extra cash for your troubles.

Auction it

Auctioning stuff online is an easy way of de-cluttering your home, and one of the Australia’s largest marketplaces is just a click away.

Although eBay is known by many as an auction site, the company has repositioned itself as something of an online department store. According to eBay, most of the items sold there these days are brand-new and sold at a fixed price. But eBay still has a huge audience for those who seek to sell their unwanted second-hand things online.

A spokesperson for eBay says there are several things a seller can do to maximise their end price. “If there’s one thing I’d recommend it’s to put as much written content in your listing as possible,” she says.

“If you’re selling something second-hand with bumps or scratches, make sure you call that out. People are more likely to bid if you’ve taken the time to put that detail in.

“And if you’re selling something where looks are important, take photos of the item, the label, any marks or scratches. If you’re selling electronics, take photos of the back of the item, including the stickers with product information and the barcode.”

eBay expertise

• Best day and time for an auction to end: Sunday evening, about 8.00pm, when according to Thomas, “people are at home, relaxing, and on the internet”.
• Best starting price: In many cases as little as a dollar. “If you’re not sure about the value of an item, start it as low as possible,” says Thomas. “It encourages people to get involved in your auction. People see it as an opportunity to get a real bargain. And you might find people get so caught up in the auction, you get a better price. If you start it too high they can be put off.”
• Ideal auction length: Seven days. “One week ensures people stay excited over a shorter period of time,” says Thomas. “Less than that and you don’t get two weekends; longer and people might get bored. That said, 10 days is great for items that need to be inspected before purchase, such as a car or motorbike.”
• Cost of an auction: For regular members, it’s free to list up to 40 items in one month. If an item sells, the seller pays eBay 9.9% of the final value, with a cap of $250. Some items, such as cars, fall under a different pricing structure.

Online classifieds

If you’re more interested in a fixed price than an auction and would rather avoid paying commission, try a classifieds service. Some options are:

• (now owned by eBay), a free service.
• , also free.
• The . Also free for private sellers in most categories.

The advantage of using a classifieds site is if your item sells, you pocket the full amount. The disadvantage is that if you’re using a paid

service, you may have to pay upfront to get your item listed.

Offline options

You can always join in at your local flea market or swap meet, or go old school and advertise in your local newspaper’s classifieds sections. If you’re not averse to paying a commission, you can contact an auction house near you. But if you settle on the classic garage sale, make sure to contact your local council to find out if they have any rules or regulations. There may be restrictions on signage for advertising the sale, and issues with taking up public footpath space.

Giving away your stuff

There are plenty of people out there who’d appreciate those things you no longer use. But how do you connect with them? One option is using a recycling network, if you are on Facebook you can search to see if there is a “Pay it forward” group in your area where you can post goods to give away otherwise here are some other options:

Freecycle

is one group operating free, individual micro-groups for areas around Australia. Just join the branch local to you, then list those things you’d like to give away.

Other group members will ask for the item and tell you why they’d like it, and you choose who to give it to. The successful Freecycler will then pick up their new stuff from you.

Ziilch

 takes a different approach. Joining and using Ziilch is also free, but instead of signing up for local deals, the site operates on one platform for the entire country. “You can swap things anywhere around Australia if you want,” says company director Richard Milne. “The postage is worked out between users on a one-on-one basis, so we don’t get involved.”

The best part of using recycling networks can be the joy of receiving as well as giving. Both Freecycle and Ziilch allow users to request items from other members.

Ziilch also allows charities to join the site and request items of need. “Charities can take out a mini-page on the website and put out a call for things they want,” says Milne.

“For example, if there’s a fire and they need furniture donations, or winter is coming and they need blankets, they can ask for those directly.”

Givenow

makes finding the charity that wants your stuff easy by categorising Australian-wide community organisations that accept donations of everything from clothes and food to corks and football boots.

“We try to keep our list as updated as we can. It works as a pool system – we are happy for community groups to come to us and tell us what they’re after too,” says director Kylie Cirak.

The self-described “giving portal” also provides a commission-free cash donation service for thousands of community groups around the country.

“Groups are paying a lot of money in fees to set up an account for online donations themselves,” she says. “We do this for them for free and issue the receipts, which is a big save for them as well.”

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