Mandolin Cafe

Effectively immediately we're taking additional steps to protect users of our Classifieds. While we will continue to list the phone field during the submission process it will be hidden by default. On occasions, though very rare, we need to contact party that placed an ad, and for that reason we will allow the field to be filled but it will be hidden by default.

We still strongly encourage you to make human, phone contact with people you are dealing with. However, we are going to start a process where phone numbers are also removed from the body of the ad text as well. Obtaining a phone number by asking for it instead of making it readily available to all potential scammers should be a part of every transaction.

There are individuals that attempt to bypass the Reply To function by texting bogus offers. The vast majority of these are low grade scams involving over-payments followed by requests for a refund. Guess what? That check if deposited will bounce. To our knowledge, no one here has been a recipient of this scam, and taking this step will ensure no one will. We can verify that someone has attempted this today.

NEVER do business with anyone that finds a way to contact you without using the Classifieds Reply To feature. There is an evaluation process that is a part of the use of that feature. Use it and we provide a good measure of protection. Bypass it or allow others to and you lose that protection. From this point forward we will remove phone numbers inserted into ad bodies. E-mail addresses inserted into ads are already checked routinely by programming features and we're notified if they are found so we can investigate and/or remove.

Anyone asking you to call instead of using the Reply To feature should be cause for concern, though less so.

We have a proven screening process in place that we don't advertise. Any method of contacting you without someone clicking the Reply to Ad feature should immediately be suspect.