Your Safety

Question

Your Safety

Accepted Answer

Car Kin does not conduct criminal background checks or screening. Anyone who can commit identity theft can also set up a fake dating profile. If you think you are talking to someone overseas, please contact us. We are strictly an Australian members only site. Please remember that scammers operate in Australia as well..... Be careful and contact us if you become suspicious.

Always use good judgement and take preventative measures when communicating and/or meeting any stranger.

Your dating profile or chatting to members should never list your full name, personal email address, home address, phone number, where you work, or any other private personal information that could make it easy to identify you. Always use caution.

Cease communication with anyone who pressures you for personal or financial information, and report this member to us immediately.

If sharing photos, think about what other people can learn about you from the image and your whereabouts. Every photo you take has automatic EXIF metadata stored within it, including the geolocation where it was taken, the date and the device used and much more information. Scammers are aware of this. See if you are able to remove EXIF data from your photos before sharing.

If you upload a photo that has another person in it, make sure you have their consent prior to uploading.

Please guard your home address at all cost. If you intend meeting a member, be very protective of your property which will obviously include keeping your car safer. Meet away from your home for the first few meetings, without taking your pride and joy (your car) until you feel comfortable with the member you have recently met. Car Kin is not and cannot be held accountable for the members you decide to meet, but please contact us as soon as possible if you suspect the member you are meeting has suspicious intentions. We want you to be safe and are unable to look after you when meeting members. Please be cautious.

If you decide to have an actual meeting with a member, always tell a friend or family member where you are going and when you will be back. Always plan the first few meetings in a public, well-lit area where other people will be at the same time as you, during the day, never night time. Having a friend or two sitting at the same location at another table is a fantastic way to feel safe. Trust your gut feelings. If you don’t want to continue with the catch-up, do not feel guilty, do not stay longer than you want, forget about your manners, be honest, say that you feel uncomfortable and would like to go home, and add a “sorry”.

Never give a stranger your personal address or invite them back to your home.

Never take your show car, your pride and joy, that you cannot replace.

Try not to go straight home, in case you are followed. Go to a shopping centre, a friends house, visit a family member or even better, catch a taxi there and see if a friend can pick you up. This all seems extreme, but we at Car Kin are trying to keep you and your property safe and offering this security option for your benefit, and to give you something to consider.

If a member only has limited time during the week to meet with you, and have identified themselves as single, please note that this may not be the case. The member may not be readily available due to a partner they live with, and may only be seeking a part time relationship with no substance or a random catch up at odd times.  If you are seeking a relationship, make sure you know the full intentions of the member you are talking to.

Do not allow any member to have contact with your children. Our members are strangers to us and to you. Protect your family and contact us immediately if you suspect anything that may be considered unacceptable behaviour or questioning.

Profiles can contain lies or be fabricated to make the member seem exactly what you are wanting to read, to entice contact. Question the profile content as a form of conversation building. Don’t trust everything you read.

Scammers are a daily fact of life these days. They are everywhere, using so many different options to lure people in releasing information, identity or even worse, money.  If you suspect any of our members as having fake profiles, or ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE ASKED FOR MONEY FOR ANY REASON, contact us immediately. •Your profile picture should be brand new, not seen on any of your existing socials, so that photo matching is eliminated. You don’t want them to find you on other sites by your photo.

Take your time getting to know members, communicating only on the Car Kin website, until you are comfortable chatting away from it. Don’t be rushed into talking privately too soon, remember, this is still a stranger. Stay within the safety of Car Kin as long as possible.

Do not add members to your social media until you are confident it is safe to allow them to see all of your historical posts, photos, family, children, locations you visit etc.

If a member is showing or asking for sexual content during your chats, please contact us immediately. Do not respond to threats, bad language, or unacceptable conversations that make you feel uncomfortable. Decline any request to join a club, group or external company, whether it’s political, religious, financial, stock or wealth creation, please let us know immediately.

If any member tells you they love you after only a few chats, questions why you aren’t on line, seems to dominate or control you, shows signs of anger if you don’t want to chat to them, contacts you to the verge of harassment, insists on communicating, please contact us immediately. If you have not met the member yet, it may be safer not to do so, no matter how much they insist.

Find out more about computer and device security at Stay Smart Online, https://www.cyber.gov.au/acsc/individuals-and-families/protect-your-devices and also https://www.esafety.gov.au  and https://www.scamwatch.gov.au

If you have sent money to any Carkin members for any reason, please contact your bank and inform them of any money transfer details you used to send money to the scammer. While it is rare that money can be recovered, it may prevent further fraud and potentially stop other victims from sending money to the scammers. Please contact us immediately so that we can investigate and protect other members.

If any scammer insists on further funds from you for any reason, or threatens you, or warns you of any form of blackmail, please report this immediately to the police via the Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network (ACORN) at https://www.acorn.gov.au

Beware of accepting gifts that could be used to conceal drugs. Some victims have been caught carrying drugs through customs in luggage they were given as gifts. Never accept packages to be posted to a friend of someone you have started talking to, and if this happens to you by a member, please contact us.

Never accept cheques made out to your name, to be banked and sent on to a friend of the person you have been chatting to.

If you start to communicate with a member away from the Carkin site, and your new friend doesn’t have a computer camera or any visual method of communicating with you, they are probably scammers. Let us know immediately.