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24 March 2008 A makeover for avbooking.com

Having been up and running for more than 2 years we decided that it was time that we gave avbooking.com a major makeover. The website has been completely redesigned from the bottom up with our primary focus concentrated in the following areas, Making it easier for visitors to find their way around the adverts. Improving the visibilty/promotion of adverts in search engines. Raising the standard of the user interface to a fresher and more modern look. Better tools for our advertisers to help combat fraudulent responses. Better protection from fraudulent adverts for our site visitors.

24 March 2008 Introduction of escrow declarations

Sometimes people will use a third party company to exchange money and goods in an internet transaction. These third party companies are called escrow companies and are intended to make such transations safer for both the the buyer and the seller. Whilst legitimate escrow companies do provide some degree of protection, there are also a growing number of "scam" escrow sites created for the sole purpose of "stealing" money, goods and/or credit card information from unsuspecting people. We have implemented a system where all adverts placed or edited after 24 March 2008 require an "escrow statement" from the advertiser. An advertiser can make a new escrow statement for an advert but cannot modify or delete an existing declaration. Adverts show the declaration history, together with information, as entered by the advertiser about any escrow company involved. Whilst this does not provide any guarantee of the credibility of either the advertiser or the escrow company, it does provide an opportunity for our users to check out such a company before contacting the advertiser and it also provides an indicator that things may not be quite what they seem if an advertiser strays from the stated information after being contacted. It should be remebered that escrow declarations are made by the individual advertisers and that such declarations are only intended to assist our users in spotting possible fraud. Escrow declarations are not any form for gurantee or endorsement from avbooking.com. Useful links https://www.escrow.com/fic/index.asp http://www.westernunion.com/WUCOMWEB/staticMid.do?method=load&pagename=fraudIndex http://escrow-fraud.com/ http://www.ic3.gov/preventiontips.aspx