Frequently Asked Questions

travel_explore Where do your listings come from? #

HonestyBox.scot is a crowd-sourced community map. Anyone who finds a box, runs one, or just enjoys hunting for them can add it, leave a comment, share a photo, or suggest an edit.

1. Anyone can contribute. If you've come across a box that isn't on the map yet, add it. Something off about an existing listing? Suggest an edit from the listing page. Want to leave a thank-you for the owner? Drop a comment.

2. We seeded the catalogue from publicly-available sources. To make the map useful from day one, we built initial listings from Facebook and Instagram pages, Google Maps, OpenStreetMap, local guides, tourism + council websites, walking blogs, and similar. The goal was the most complete map of honesty boxes anywhere on the internet, and our thanks go to the communities whose legwork made that possible.

3. If we found yours, the listing is yours to take over. Owners who claim their listing can edit the details, upload their own photos, reply to visitor comments, and respond to suggested edits, all free, and it takes about a minute. Boxes looked after by their owners get around three times more views on the map than unclaimed ones.

Don't want to be listed? Send us a message and we'll take it down, no questions asked.

account_circle Creating an account #

You need an account to add a listing, claim ownership of an existing one, save favourites, or leave comments. Anonymous browsing of the map and listings doesn't need one.

1. Go to the sign-up page, or click Sign up in the top-right of any page on HonestyBox.scot.

2. Pick a username (this is your public handle on the site, you can change it later if you want), enter your email, and a password of at least 10 characters. Tick the "I'm not a robot" box and click Create account.

3. Check your inbox for a verification email from us (sender shows as HonestyBox.scot). Click the Verify my email button inside. The link is good for 24 hours.

   Not arriving? Check your spam/junk folder. If it still hasn't landed after a few minutes, drop us a message and we'll dig into it.

4. You're in. The verify link drops you on your account page, where you can set up your profile, add a bio, link social accounts, and start adding or claiming honesty boxes.

Still stuck? Send us a message and we'll help!

add_location Adding an honesty box to the map #

Anyone with an account can add a box, yours or a neighbour's. New listings go through a quick review (usually within a day or two) before they appear on the public map.

1. Sign up or log in first, adding a box needs a verified account.

2. Open the Add a box form directly, or hit the Add a box button on the map rail (left side on desktop, tap-to-open on mobile).

3. Drop a pin where the box is. There are three ways:

   • Click directly on the map at the right spot
   • Type a UK postcode in the search box and let it find the location for you
   • Type a what3words address (e.g. ///table.pencil.green) for precision down to the 3m square

   Drag the pin to fine-tune, then click Confirm location.

4. Fill in the listing. Short name, what's on offer, the category (eggs, baked goods, free library, etc.), opening hours if any, payment methods, and up to eight photos. Photos are the single biggest signal that a box is real and worth visiting, so add as many as you can.

   Opening hours: if your box doesn't have a fixed schedule, leave the time/day fields as "Not specified", it's better to be honest than to invent hours that aren't accurate.

5. Click Submit for review. An admin eyeballs each submission (usually within a day or two) and you'll get an email when the listing goes live.

Still stuck? Send us a message and we'll help!

hand_package Claiming a listing as the owner #

If you own or manage a honesty box that's already on the map, claiming it gives you owner controls: edit details directly, add photos, reply to visitor comments, and respond when somebody suggests an edit.

1. Sign up or log in, claims need a verified account.

2. Find your honesty box on the map and click the pin (or its card in the right-hand rail) to open the listing's detail page.

3. In the right-hand panel headed Manage or correct this listing, click Claim this listing.

4. Tell us briefly why you're the owner. For example:

   • "It's in my front garden"
   • "I'm the parish council clerk and we own the converted phone box"
   • "I run the bakery; here's my landline if you want to call to verify"

   The more specific, the faster review goes. You can also add a phone number we can call to confirm.

5. Click Submit claim. An admin reviews it (usually within a day or two). Once approved, you'll see owner controls on the listing, edit details directly, add photos, reorder them, and respond to comments.

Still stuck? Send us a message and we'll help!

report Reporting a theft or damage #

If your box has been emptied, broken into or interfered with, tell us. We can't get your takings back — but we can look at whether it's part of a pattern, and we keep the records that would otherwise be deleted while you decide what to do.

1. You need to have claimed the box first. Only the owner of a listing can report an incident on it — see claiming a listing. That's not bureaucracy: a report freezes records and raises an alert, so it has to come from the person it actually happened to.

2. Open your listing and find Report a theft or damage in the owner tools at the bottom of the page.

3. Tell us when it happened — not when you noticed. That distinction matters more than anything else on the form: we group reports by date and place to spot patterns, and a date that says "the day I checked the tin" puts your box in the wrong week. A rough time of day helps if you have one.

4. Pick what was taken — cash, goods, both, or damage with nothing taken — and add anything else worth knowing. Damage alone is worth reporting; it often comes before a theft.

5. Say whether we may contact you. If two or three boxes near you are hit in the same fortnight, that's when we'd want to get in touch — and if you'd rather we didn't, the report still counts towards the pattern.

What happens next

Your report goes straight to us and is never published. Saying publicly that a box was robbed advertises a target and punishes the owner for telling us, so it appears nowhere on the site — not on your listing, not on the map, not in search.

It also freezes the records for your box for 180 days. We normally delete who looked at which listing after 90 days; a report holds that listing's history so it still exists if the theft turns into a police matter weeks later. That freeze covers one listing, has your report as its written reason, and expires on its own.

Reports are grouped by date and by 5 km area, so several around the same place in a short window stand out to us instead of arriving one at a time over weeks and looking like bad luck.

Should I call the police too?

Yes — please do, and do it first. Theft from an honesty box is theft. We're a map, not an investigator: we can tell you whether your box looks like part of a cluster and we'll share our records with the police if they make a lawful request, but we can't act on a crime ourselves. In Scotland and the rest of the UK, non-emergency reports go to 101.

Can I just take my box off the map?

Of course. Send us a message and we'll remove the listing, no questions asked. Being on the map should be worth it to you, and if it stops being worth it that's a good enough reason on its own.

Worth knowing before you decide: since September 2026 people without an account see only a rough area and no exact location, address or directions for any box on the site.

favorite What is teaming? #

Teaming links your account with another member's so your two Visited maps combine. Both of your public profiles then show the honesty boxes you've each visited, under a “teamed with” heading, perfect for couples, families, or friends who go box-hunting together.

1. You both need a public Visited list. Turn it on under Profile visibility in your account settings (“Show my Visited list on my public profile”).

2. In the Team up section of your account, invite the other member by their username. They'll get an email and see the invite in their own account settings.

3. Once they accept, you're teamed up. Each of your profiles shows the union of both maps, labelled “teamed with @them”. The heart link on a profile brings you right back to this explainer.

4. You can team with one person at a time. Either of you can end it whenever you like from account settings, and turning your Visited list private ends it automatically, your maps simply stop being combined.

Questions about teaming? Send us a message and we'll help!