Buying and selling safely

• Meet somewhere public, in daylight. A busy store parking lot or a bank lobby works. In December that may mean planning around a few hours of light, so pick a spot that’s well lit and busy.
• Use a safe exchange spot if there’s one near you. Many police departments set aside a lobby or a camera-watched parking area for exactly this. Call your local department’s non-emergency line and ask.
• Bring someone, and tell another person where you’re going and when you expect to be back.
• For big items at your place (a woodstove, a chest freezer, a snowmachine on a trailer), have someone else home, move the item to the driveway or garage ahead of time, and keep the buyer out of the house.
• Trust your gut. If the plan keeps changing, the meeting moves somewhere remote, or the person won’t answer simple questions, walk away. There will be another buyer.

Cash in person is the safest way to sell. Count it in front of the buyer. For large amounts, meet at your bank and have the teller check the bills and deposit them on the spot.

For big-ticket sales, use something your bank can verify. If the buyer wants to pay with a cashier’s check, meet at the buyer’s bank and watch the teller print it, or call the issuing bank yourself using a phone number you looked up, not one printed on the check. Fake cashier’s checks look real and can take weeks to bounce, after the bank has already shown the money in your account.

Payment apps are for people you know. Most person-to-person apps don’t offer buyer or seller protection, and a payment can be reversed or turn out to come from a stolen account. If you use one, wait until the money has fully landed in your bank account before you hand anything over.

Buyers: don’t pay before you’ve seen the item, and never pay a deposit to “hold” something you haven’t looked at.

Lots of buyers live off the road system, and selling to them is a normal part of doing business here. A few habits keep it smooth:

• Get paid in full before anything ships. Wait until the payment has cleared your bank, not just shown up as pending.
• Agree on freight up front: who pays it, which carrier, and whether the buyer picks up at the airline cargo office or the barge landing. Get the buyer’s full name as it should appear on the shipment, their community, and a phone number the freight office can reach.
• Use tracked air cargo or barge freight. Air is faster and costs more; barge is cheaper for heavy things but only runs in the ice-free months, so plan around breakup and freeze-up.
• Ask the carrier about restricted items before you pack: fuel, propane, batteries, ammunition and anything with a gas tank have rules for air cargo.
• Take photos while you pack, including serial numbers, and keep the waybill or tracking number. Send both to the buyer when it leaves.
• Pack for rough handling and cold. Things ride on pallets, in unheated holds, and sometimes on a four-wheeler for the last mile.

Buyers in the Bush: ask for photos of the actual item with today’s date written on a piece of paper next to it, and pay a way that leaves a record.

Trucks, cars, snowmachines, ATVs and boats are where the most money changes hands, so slow down here.

• See the title before you pay. The seller’s name should be on it, and there should be no lienholder listed (or a signed lien release). No title in hand means no deal.
• Check the VIN. Match the VIN on the title to the one on the vehicle, then run it. The National Insurance Crime Bureau offers a free check for theft and salvage records, and paid history reports show past accidents and odometer readings.
• Write a bill of sale with the date, price, VIN, both names and signatures. Both of you keep a copy.
• Transfer it at the DMV. The buyer needs to transfer the title and registration into their name; check Alaska DMV for the current deadline and forms. Sellers should keep a copy of the signed title and let the DMV know the vehicle was sold, so tickets and tolls stop coming to you.
• Snowmachines and boats are registered with the Alaska DMV too. Get the registration and a bill of sale, and check the hull or serial number matches.
• Aircraft transfer through the FAA registry. Look through the logbooks, confirm the last annual, and have an A&P mechanic you choose do a pre-buy inspection.
• Test drive with the seller along, and have your own mechanic look at anything expensive.

Rental scams are common everywhere and Alaska is no exception, especially in summer when housing is tight. Before you pay any deposit:

• See the place in person, or have someone you trust go. If you’re moving from Outside or from the Bush, a video call walking through the unit is the minimum.
• Make sure the person renting it has the right to. Ask for their name and check it against borough or city property records, or confirm you’re dealing with a real property manager.
• Get a written lease that lists the rent, the deposit and what’s included. For dry cabins and rural places, spell out heating fuel, water haul, the outhouse or septic, and whether the road is plowed in winter.
• Know the deposit rules. Alaska’s Landlord and Tenant Act generally limits a security deposit to two months’ rent, with some exceptions for higher rents. Check the current law if a number looks high.

Common rental scams:

• The “owner” is out of state, overseas or on a mission and will mail you the keys after you wire a deposit.
• Photos copied from a real listing or a vacation rental site, with a rent far below what similar places go for.
• A push to pay right away because “lots of people are interested.”

Firearms listings are allowed for private, in-person sales between Alaska residents. Everyone posting in that category agrees to these rules:

• Follow federal, state and local law. You can’t sell to anyone you know or have reason to believe is prohibited from having a firearm. Asking to see an Alaska ID is reasonable; many sellers also write a simple bill of sale.
• Sell in person. No shipping through the site. Federal law doesn’t allow private sales between residents of different states; those transfers have to go through a licensed dealer (FFL).
• Consider using a dealer anyway. Many FFLs will run a background check on a private sale for a small fee. It protects both of you.
• No NFA items (machine guns, suppressors, short-barreled rifles or shotguns) and nothing illegal to own. See prohibited items.
• Bring it cased and unloaded, and keep it that way until you’re both ready to look it over. A police safe exchange spot is a good place to meet; call ahead to ask whether they allow firearm sales there.

Laws change, and this isn’t legal advice. When in doubt, ask a licensed dealer or the ATF.

• Meet the animal before you pay. Puppy and kitten scams are among the most common online scams: cute photos, a low price, then fees for shipping, a crate, insurance and vaccines. Live animals can’t be shipped through Northern List listings at all.
• For puppies, ask to see the mother, and ask for vet records and vaccination history.
• For sled dogs, ask about the dog’s running history, how it does in a team, and its temperament around other dogs.
• For livestock and poultry, ask for health records, and check with the state veterinarian about any health certificate or testing needed to move animals.
• Rehoming fees are fine. Be honest about health and temperament, and don’t hand an animal to someone who makes you uneasy.

Report the listing from its page, or write to [email protected] with the listing title and what happened. We remove scam listings and ban the accounts behind them.

If you’re in danger, call 911. If you lost money, call your bank, then report it to local police and the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov. The help page has more on what to do next.