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Trade Me quake memorabilia auction page - Source: ONE News -
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As some people try to make a quick buck hawking quake memorabilia on the internet, Kiwis are being warned to be wary of scammers.
Auction site Trade Me is seeing everything from tarseals to broken crockery and fridges being auctioned.
But the Ministry of Consumer Affairs is warning Kiwis to know who they are donating to before they open their wallets.
"Scammers are going to take the opportunity to scam people at any time and any place and a natural disaster is unfortunately one of those opportunities. We saw it after the Haiti earthquake," says Richard Parlett from the ministry.
Trade Me spokesman Paul Ford said the website is monitoring the situation.
"We would normally ask for a receipt or some sort of proof or even talk to the charity themselves and ask for the charity to provide some sort of verbal OK or email to say; 'Hey we support this auction'."
But most people's auctions seem to be noble and doing their bit for charities helping people in the region.
One person is auctioning man hugs to raise money for the Red Cross.
And many auctions are showing that people's humour is still mostly intact, despite the trauma. One house seller, whose house survived the quake is using that as a marketing tool to sell it, tagging it as "earthquake proof" in its Trade Me listing.
