Personal Safety

This site is intended for Bellevue College students and community. We assume the majority of the folks visiting are trustworthy and well-meaning. Our team does their best to spot spam, scams, and phishing attempts, to provide you with a safe experience.

However, whenever you engage in an online forum, it is always wise to exercise caution in regards to your personal safety and security. Be on the alert for generic photos of apartments or electronics, steer clear of prices that are too good to be true, and be very, very careful about using PayPal to manage payment transactions. If you need to create a PayPal account, do so by visiting paypal.com directly.  Also, never follow links in email from people you don’t know, even if they say they are legitimate.

Another consideration is posting your phone number online. You may want to sign up for a free service like Google Voice, which allows you to have a phone number that you use online, and then you choose what calls and texts you would like forwarded to your real phone.

Consider the following precautions, especially when meeting someone you don’t know:

  • Insist on a public meeting place where there are lots of people. The staff at the Bellevue Police Department say you are welcome to have your meeting at one of their stations (phone 425-452-4129).
  • Never meet in a secluded place, and never invite a stranger into your home.
  • Make sure someone you trust knows where you’re going, or better yet, ask them to accompany you.
  • Take your cell phone with you.
  • If you need to pick up a large piece of furniture from someone you don’t know, consider using a pickup service like Dolly.
  • Do what is right for you to keep yourself safe; don’t worry what other people might think.