Is Rare Kind safe?

Here's how a normal order moves through the system:

1. You pay at checkout. Stripe takes the funds and holds them on our behalf.
2. The seller ships within seven days. We collect the tracking number and share it with you.
3. When the item arrives, you can mark the order as received. If it looks right, we release the seller's payout.
4. If you don't touch the order within seven days of delivery, the payout auto-releases. You can still raise a dispute inside that window if anything's wrong.

If an order never ships, we cancel it automatically on day seven and refund you in full — with no action required on your part.

We use Stripe Identity — the same KYC (Know Your Customer) service Stripe uses for bank accounts and regulated businesses. A seller has to provide a government-issued ID, a selfie, and a UK bank account in their own name before they can receive any payouts.

Business sellers additionally provide their Companies House number. We look it up against the public register and confirm the company is active and the person signing up is a registered officer or authorised representative.

None of this guarantees every seller is perfect — but it does mean that if something goes wrong, we have an identity-verified person to hold accountable. Anonymous sellers don't exist on Rare Kind.

Card numbers, expiry dates, and CVVs are entered directly into Stripe's checkout widget. We receive a tokenised reference back — enough to charge and refund your card, but not enough for anyone (including us) to use it elsewhere.

Every checkout is screened by Stripe Radar, which uses machine learning trained across billions of transactions to flag high-risk patterns. High-risk transactions are challenged with 3D Secure — the "enter the code from your bank" step. If a payment looks fraudulent, it's declined before we ever see the order.

If your card is ever charged without your authorisation, your bank will refund you through the standard chargeback process. We cooperate fully with chargeback investigations.

Off-platform payments are the single most common way resale scams happen. The pitch usually sounds reasonable: "I'll give you a discount if you pay by bank transfer", or "my account is having issues, can you PayPal me directly."

Once money leaves Rare Kind, three things are true:

• Buyer protection doesn't cover you.
• There's no escrow — the seller has your money instantly.
• If no item arrives, you're chasing a bank transfer that can't be reversed.

Asking for an off-platform payment is a straight breach of our terms of service. We scan messages for the tell-tale language (IBANs, sort codes, "pay me direct", "bank transfer") and flag them for our moderation team. Sellers who try it get suspended; repeat offenders are removed.

If you've been asked to pay off-platform, open a support ticket with the message in it — we'll handle the rest.

Sellers warrant that every item they list is genuine and accurately described. If a buyer reports a listing as counterfeit, we investigate: the seller has to evidence authenticity (receipts, original packaging, provenance) or the item comes down and the order is refunded.

Repeated counterfeit listings lead to account removal and, where relevant, referral to Trading Standards or the brand's anti-counterfeiting team. We work with rights-holders who want to take action — see our IP policy for the notice-and-takedown process.

If a price looks too good to be true — a box-fresh designer piece at a fraction of retail from a seller with no reviews — it often is. Check the seller's profile, look at their other listings, and message them with questions before you buy.

For higher-value items, we pause the usual automatic flow and have a human on our team look at the order: the listing, the buyer's confirmation, and any messages between the two parties. Only then do we release funds to the seller.

This adds a day or two to payouts on premium items, but it dramatically reduces the scope for scams targeting expensive pieces. Legitimate sellers get paid after a short delay; opportunistic fraud loses its biggest target.

• "Pay me directly."Any request to move off Rare Kind for payment — bank transfer, PayPal friends & family, gift card, crypto. Always a scam. Always.
• Pressure to decide in minutes."Someone else is about to buy this, reserve it now with a deposit." Real sellers don't need a deposit — Rare Kind already reserves the item when you check out.
• Brand-new accounts with high-value listings. A first listing that happens to be an £800 designer bag from a seller with zero reviews is worth a second look. Message first, check their responsiveness, start smaller if you can.
• Photos that look stock, not personal.If all the photos are on the same white background with the tags visible, they may have been lifted from a retailer's site. Ask the seller for a fresh photo — holding the item, with a handwritten note showing their username and today's date.
• Prices far below market.Discounts happen; a designer item at 20% of retail doesn't.
• Requests to share your address before payment. You never need to share your address before buying. Checkout collects it, encrypted, after payment clears.

You have seven days from delivery to open a dispute. From your order page, tap "Raise a dispute". Describe what's wrong — item doesn't match the listing, damaged in transit, counterfeit, etc. — and attach photos if you can.

When a dispute opens:

1. The seller's payout is paused automatically. They keep nothing until the dispute resolves.
2. Both parties get a chance to explain their side, in a dedicated thread visible to our moderation team.
3. We review the evidence and the listing. Resolutions range from full refund to partial refund to "in the seller's favour" depending on what happened.
4. You can appeal our decision once. A different moderator reviews the appeal.

Beyond Rare Kind's internal process, UK buyers also have their bank's chargeback rights, ADR via Ombudsman Services, and the small claims track of the County Court if it comes to that. See the returns & refunds policy for the full detail.

As a seller, you're protected against:

• Chargeback fraud.If a buyer files a fraudulent chargeback after receiving the item, we help you defend it with the tracking, messages, and listing evidence on file. Stripe's Chargeback Protection covers eligible disputes.
• Item not received claims.If tracking shows delivery to the buyer's address, the order is considered fulfilled. "Didn't arrive" with a delivered scan is the buyer's issue with their courier or household.
• Bad-faith disputes. Buyers who repeatedly open disputes after receiving items in the described condition are flagged internally and eventually suspended.
• Harassment. You can report any message, review, or profile using the Report button. We take harassment as seriously as any other safety issue.

Every profile, listing, review and message has a Report button. Pick the closest reason, add a few words of context, and our moderation team gets a ticket. Your name is never shared with the person you're reporting.

If you'd rather email, reach us at hello@joinrarekind.co.uk — include the order ID, username, or listing URL so we can find what you're referring to quickly.

We treat safety reports as priority queue. Most get a first human response inside a working day; genuine emergencies (self-harm, threats) are escalated immediately and, where appropriate, referred to the relevant authorities.