How to use the Community Watch function to report a listing

Trade Me Members can report suspicious listings or sellers who are breaching our terms and conditions by clicking the Community Watch function which can be found at the bottom of every listing.

It looks like this:

You can use Community Watch for many concerns which may include:

Suspicious bidding patterns such as members bidding on their own auctions. We call this 'shill bidding' - it’s illegal and uncool.
Members who have placed contact details on their auctions. This will help stop approaches from scammers.
People trying to complete the deal outside the auction process.
Possible copyright infringement such as fake or pirated goods. Check out our intellectual property rights section for more advice.
An item is on Trade Me's Banned & Restricted Items list. If it’s unsafe or illegal to sell, let us know - we’ll remove it.
Approaches from members not located in NZ or Australia – this is to help ensure scammers stay off the site.
An item is listed in the wrong category. We like a tidy site!

You can also let us know if you think an item listed is your stolen property.

When you report a listing, it really helps if you can give as much detail as possible using the details box. The more you add, the more we can understand your concern.

We get about 1,400 Community Watch reports a day. That’s 9,800 a week or 509,600 a year. A set of human eyeballs reads each and every listing that is reported through Community Watch and action is taken as appropriate but again the better the information provided, the better decision we can make.

Auctions are not removed automatically and some issues do take time to resolve so bear this in mind.

If you have reported a listing and it is removed, you will be sent an automated email acknowledging this.

However, if the listing is not removed, you won't be notified.

Trade Me really appreciates the help of its members and community to help keep the site trustworthy and safe.

If you are a copyright/intellectual property rights holder with a concern about your rights, then please contact us through the intellectual property rights holders section – our Liaison team will be in touch as a result.