Staying safe

The tricks that target people buying and selling a business online, what NextOwner does about each one, and how to report something.

NextOwner will never send wire instructions or ask for payment by email, text or chat. If a message asks, report it.

NextOwner is a marketplace and document-checking service. We are not a broker, lender, escrow agent, law firm or accounting firm. We do not negotiate deals or hold funds.

On this page

Four tricks to know
What NextOwner will never do
How to report something
If something already happened

Four tricks to know

They all try the same thing: to move you somewhere nobody else can see, then rush you.

A buyer in a hurry to leave the platform

Someone keen to move to email, a phone call or a video call before signing anything, often with flattery or a deadline. The aim is to get the business's name, its figures or your personal details outside any agreement.

What NextOwner does: Phone numbers, email addresses, links and messenger names are hidden in messages, in both directions, until the seller approves the buyer's access. A buyer signs the NDA before they can ask for access, and the seller sees the buyer's profile before deciding.
What you can do: Keep the conversation on NextOwner until you have approved access. If someone keeps pushing, decline, block the conversation or report it.

An email asking for a “verification fee”

A message that claims to come from NextOwner, a lender or the other side's adviser, asking you to pay to verify a listing, unlock a buyer or release funds. It may ask for a wire, a gift card or cryptocurrency.

What NextOwner does: Buyers pay NextOwner nothing. The seller fees are the ones on our pricing, and we never ask for them by email, text or chat. A message on NextOwner that asks for money, bank details or a sign-in code is held back and never reaches the other person.
What you can do: Do not pay, and do not use the link in the message. Open NextOwner yourself and check your account there.

Changed wire instructions near closing

Just before closing, an email that seems to come from the attorney, the escrow agent or the other side says the bank details have changed. Money sent to a fraudster's account is very hard to get back.

What NextOwner does: NextOwner never holds, routes or releases purchase money, and never sends wire instructions. Any wire instructions that appear to come from NextOwner are fake.
What you can do: Before sending money, call your attorney or escrow agent on a phone number you already had, not one from the email, and confirm the account details out loud.

Attachments that carry malware

A file or a file-sharing link, described as financials, an NDA or a letter of intent, that installs something harmful or asks you to sign in before you can see it.

What NextOwner does: Messages on NextOwner cannot carry files. Documents are shared only through the data room. Uploads are checked as they arrive: photos are rebuilt from scratch, and PDFs that contain scripts or passwords are refused.
What you can do: Do not open deal documents that arrive by email. Ask for them in the data room instead.

What NextOwner will never do

If anyone claiming to be NextOwner does any of these, it is not us.

Send wire instructions, or ask you to pay by email, text or chat
Hold, route or release the money for a purchase
Ask for your password or a sign-in code
Charge a buyer anything
Ask you to take a conversation off NextOwner

How to report something

Reports go to NextOwner staff, who review every one.

In a conversation

Choose Report on the message or on the conversation, and pick the reason that fits best. You can also block the conversation at any time; it closes for both of you.

The reasons you can choose

Asked me to pay or move money outside NextOwner
Sent a suspicious link or file
Pressure, urgency or threats
Pretending to be someone else
Spam or advertising
Harassment or abuse
Something else

What happens next

A member of NextOwner’s staff reads the report and the conversation around it. They can remove a message, close a conversation, and suspend or ban an account. Messages that ask for money or a sign-in code are held back automatically and go to the same team.

If something already happened

If you sent money, call your bank straight away and ask them to recall the payment. Then report it to the police.
In the United States you can also report it to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov. In Canada, report it to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
If you think someone else has used your NextOwner account, change your password in your account settings. That signs out every other device.
Report the conversation on NextOwner too, so staff can stop the same person reaching anyone else.
For anything else, the help page answers common questions and says how to reach NextOwner.

Four tricks to know

They all try the same thing: to move you somewhere nobody else can see, then rush you.

A buyer in a hurry to leave the platform

What NextOwner does: Phone numbers, email addresses, links and messenger names are hidden in messages, in both directions, until the seller approves the buyer's access. A buyer signs the NDA before they can ask for access, and the seller sees the buyer's profile before deciding.
What you can do: Keep the conversation on NextOwner until you have approved access. If someone keeps pushing, decline, block the conversation or report it.

An email asking for a “verification fee”

What NextOwner does: Buyers pay NextOwner nothing. The seller fees are the ones on our pricing, and we never ask for them by email, text or chat. A message on NextOwner that asks for money, bank details or a sign-in code is held back and never reaches the other person.
What you can do: Do not pay, and do not use the link in the message. Open NextOwner yourself and check your account there.

Changed wire instructions near closing

What NextOwner does: NextOwner never holds, routes or releases purchase money, and never sends wire instructions. Any wire instructions that appear to come from NextOwner are fake.
What you can do: Before sending money, call your attorney or escrow agent on a phone number you already had, not one from the email, and confirm the account details out loud.

Attachments that carry malware

A file or a file-sharing link, described as financials, an NDA or a letter of intent, that installs something harmful or asks you to sign in before you can see it.

What NextOwner does: Messages on NextOwner cannot carry files. Documents are shared only through the data room. Uploads are checked as they arrive: photos are rebuilt from scratch, and PDFs that contain scripts or passwords are refused.
What you can do: Do not open deal documents that arrive by email. Ask for them in the data room instead.

How to report something

Reports go to NextOwner staff, who review every one.

In a conversation

Choose Report on the message or on the conversation, and pick the reason that fits best. You can also block the conversation at any time; it closes for both of you.

The reasons you can choose

Asked me to pay or move money outside NextOwner
Sent a suspicious link or file
Pressure, urgency or threats
Pretending to be someone else
Spam or advertising
Harassment or abuse
Something else

What happens next

If something already happened

If you sent money, call your bank straight away and ask them to recall the payment. Then report it to the police.
In the United States you can also report it to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov. In Canada, report it to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
If you think someone else has used your NextOwner account, change your password in your account settings. That signs out every other device.
Report the conversation on NextOwner too, so staff can stop the same person reaching anyone else.
For anything else, the help page answers common questions and says how to reach NextOwner.