One of the biggest concerns when buying used equipment is if it is stolen. Here are two things you can do to learn more about it.

1. Do an internet search for the seller by name, address, and phone number. Do they show up? Do they regularly sell? Do they even exist as a seller? Look up their company name under the Secretary of State office for their state (search for “<whatever state> business search”)
2. Verify the e-mail address. Pay attention to what comes after the @. Companies who use generic email addresses (@gmail, Hotmail, live, AOL, yahoo) are sitting ducks for equipment to be sold fraudulently under their name. It’s easy to pick up the same name under a different generic and sell invisible equipment under it. You can look up the company and see if the same email address structure is used and the person selling.

You can save yourself from being the victim of this by buying the URL of your company name and getting an e-mail address under it. GoDaddy is a popular site to buy your URL (website name). It is not expensive and if you call them, they will walk you through it. Or you can ask almost anyone under 40 to help you. The time it takes will be well worth it so you are not targeted.