All Carousell users (buyers and sellers) can create an account with an email address. Users are allowed to list items for sale or start a new chat only after a local mobile number verification.

Users who have completed myInfo verification are differentiated from other users through a blue tick verified badge. 

You can protect yourself by looking out for the blue tick verified badge when transacting on Carousell. When transacting with sellers without the badge, you should exercise greater caution by referring to seller reviews, and/or request to use the ‘Buy’ button on-platform secure payment service offered by Carousell. Alternatively, you can consider opting for in-person transactions and perform payment after receiving the items in-person. For in-person transactions, always meet in well-lit, public places and don’t bring large sums of money with you.

Sell to Carousell

Carousell has launched various Sell to Carousell programmes to reduce the risk for casual sellers for high value items like luxury bags, mobile phones and cars by allowing them to sell directly to Carousell for instant cash. For example, Sell to Carousell Mobiles uses a proprietary diagnostic tool to ascertain the phone condition and provide a competitive and objective offer price. For Cars and Luxury Bags, Carousell has certified inspectors and authentication experts respectively to inspect and offer competitive prices based on market rate.

Carousell's Certified programme for luxury, mobile phones, sneakers and cars

You can buy secondhand luxury bags, mobile phones, sneakers and cars under Carousell's Certified programme, with the peace of mind that the item has been thoroughly checked for quality and authenticity. All Certified Luxury Bags, Certified Mobiles, and Certified Sneakers listings have money-back guarantee, and Certified Mobiles and Certified Cars listings also come with warranty. Certified listings are either from Carousell Official Stores managed directly by Carousell, or from authorised Carousell Certified Partners. You can easily identify Carousell Certified listings in the Cars, Mobile, Sneakers and Luxury categories by looking for the 'Certified' tag.

Know Your Customer (KYC) verification checks

There is a need to balance strict policies for trust and safety without compromising on providing a conducive selling and buying experience for anyone. As such, Carousell is currently exploring various options when it makes more sense to deploy KYC verification checks in a more targeted approach for high-risk scenarios in a bid to mitigate scams.

In July 2023, Carousell rolled out KYC requirements in the Property category, where Singpass verification is mandatory for all new listings created. Carousell has implemented KYC for the Tickets and Vouchers category as well in October 2023.

Transact using the ‘Buy’ button

Carousell strongly encourages users to transact using the ‘Buy’ button that provides an on-platform secure payment solution, integrated deliveries, and buyer protection policies.

When you make payment through the ‘Buy’ button, your payment is safely held by Carousell until the item is confirmed to be received as listed. The integrated door-to-door delivery provides transparent shipping details for both buyers and sellers to track delivery status.

There are also stricter policies to protect buyers who receive an item that is significantly not as described, and sellers from users who misuse the dispute and returns process. Additionally, only eligible sellers who meet Carousell’s strict criteria will be allowed to continue listing with the ‘Buy’ button.

Carousell maintains records of transactions and communications performed within the platform.

You can do your part by keeping all transactions and communications within the platform. This ensures all relevant transaction records are available to facilitate subsequent investigation and dispute resolution should the need arise.

Where appropriate, information may be made available to regulators, law enforcement or others who are investigating.  

Users can report a suspicious user or listing easily through the Carousell App and website for Carousell’s investigation. When faced with an issue with any transactions (i.e. item not received, item not as described), you should promptly report to Carousell via the Carousell Help Centre: https://support.carousell.com/hc/en-us

For transactions done through the ‘Buy’ button, when you make the report to Carousell, your payment will be held by us until your issue has been resolved. Carousell will help to reach out to both sellers and buyers to take the appropriate follow-up action. Hence, Carousell strongly encourages the use of the ‘Buy’ button.

Carousell takes an active stance in addressing the safety of its marketplace. Scams are a global challenge across all industries, and constantly shapeshift and evolve in their modus operandi. For open marketplaces with peer-to-peer transactions, there is a need to balance strict policies for trust and safety without compromising on providing a conducive selling and buying experience for anyone.

As a community-focused marketplace, continuous user education is a key piece to ensuring that users transact safely on Carousell. As a marketplace where anyone can sell anything at every second, moderation is pivotal to marketplace safety. Users are encouraged to refer to Carousell’s Trust & Safety Centre from time to time to be kept updated on the latest scam trends and patterns: https://support.carousell.com/hc/en-us/articles/8235468238873-Local-Trends-And-Safety-Advisories-Singapore-

Carousell engages in a third-party service, an all-in-one integrated tool to detect fraud trends using their extensive network of fraud data and real time machine learning models.

If a seller is under investigation for any unresolved transaction, Carousell alerts prospective buyers by enabling a dispute banner. This is why Carousell strongly encourages users to deal within Carousell instead of bringing the conversation outside of Carousell, so that prospective buyers remain alerted of any issues relating to the seller they are chatting with.

For more information on how Carousell works to keep users safe, please visit Carousell’s Trust and Safety centre.