Who holds the money
PayPal does. When a buyer pays, PayPal places an authorization on their account: the money is reserved, not sent. Avowly captures it only when the release rules are met, and pays the seller through PayPal Payouts. Avowly never sees card numbers, bank details or PayPal passwords.
What we verify
- Possession. Sellers photograph the item beside a one-time code Avowly generates. A photo copied from elsewhere can't have it.
- Identity. Serials and IMEIs are read at listing and again from the item in the buyer's hands. IMEIs must pass their built-in checksum, so a misread digit doesn't count.
- Unique marks. For items without serials, specific scratches, stickers or wear are recorded and must be seen again.
- Locks. For phones and tablets, the Find My or Find Hub switch must be shown off before payment can be released.
- Price sanity. Listings get a live market check, so a too-good-to-be-true price is flagged.
What the AI can't do
The AI reads photos and reports what it sees, with a confidence score. By design it:
- can't move money: it never calls PayPal;
- isn't told which serial to expect, so it can't be steered into a false match;
- never sees prices it could change;
- can't add a rental charge: only items on the owner's up-front price list can be charged, and only at high confidence.
Every capture, charge and release is decided by plain, published, unit-tested rules. See the docs.
Your photos
Before any photo is saved, Avowly blurs other people's personal information: phone numbers, contact names, call logs, messages, emails and faces. It also strips hidden photo data like location. The unblurred original is never stored.
Photos are private by default. Only clean shots of the item appear on your public listing; verification shots, serials and handoff scans are visible only to the people in the deal. Full details are in the privacy policy.
Scams we stop
| Scam | How Avowly stops it |
|---|---|
| Fake listing (item doesn't exist) | No possession photo with the one-time code, no verified listing. |
| Deposit-first or send-first | Nobody sends anything. PayPal holds, and nothing moves before the handoff. |
| Swapped or different device | The serial in hand doesn't match. Mismatch, nothing charged. |
| Activation-locked phone | The lock must be shown off before payment can be released. |
| “Empty box” or “never received” claims | The handoff record goes to PayPal as dispute evidence. |
| Inflated damage claims on rentals | Only pre-agreed charges, with photo evidence, capped at the deposit. |
Meeting safely
- Meet in a public, well-lit place. Many police stations offer safe-exchange spots.
- Hold the item yourself and scan it. On a phone, dial
*#06#on the device in your hands. - Never release payment before the deal room says Matched.
- Never move the conversation to paying outside Avowly. If someone insists, walk away.
Honest limits
- Avowly is a prototype on the PayPal sandbox; no real money moves yet.
- The AI is not a certified inspector. It can misread, which is why low-confidence reads ask for another photo instead of deciding.
- A matching serial proves it's the listed item, not that every part works. Test the item at the meetup.
- Lock status is read from the device's own screen; carrier blacklist checks aren't included yet.