Scams on Kijiji
Kijiji is a free, local classified-ad knowledgebase that allows users to post ads, browse ads and participate in online discussions on many subjects. However, Kijiji may also used for scamming purposes, which users should realize before attempting to buy or sell on the site. The following is a summary of the most common Kijiji scams and how to avoid them.
Shipping Scams
If you are looking to sell an item on Kijiji, you should be skeptical about doing business with anyone who requires shipping or cannot pick up and pay for the item in person. The person contacting you may offer to pay you through PayPal, check or some other form of remote payment. They may ask you to ship the item across Canada, to a foreign country or to another person. All such offers to buy are generally scams.
If you post an item on Kijiji for sale and get a response from someone who claims they live in another country, and they offer you a large amount of money to speed up the process and send them the item, this is usually a scam. If they ask for your PayPal ID and your full name, do not respond. Do not sell items to persons who tell you they want to offer you more than what you have posted as a price for any item.
It is also usually a scam if someone responds to your ad and states they have their own shipping agent who will take care of the shipment of your item. If you have stated in your ad that the item is for local pickup only, or shipping only in Canada, simply ignore these responses and contact Kijiji to alert them to the new scam.
Story Scams
Any ad about a puppy up for adoption should be looked at carefully. There is one in particular, ostensibly from a couple doing mission work in Nigeria; they offer to send their puppy to you free of charge as long as you pay the $200 to have the dog shipped. They ask for your name, address, phone number and the nearest airport to your home where you can pick the puppy up. The problem is, there is no puppy.
A response from someone who says they are in a military camp should be read carefully as well. This person typically claims that they want your item to be in time for the birthday of a cousin who is studying abroad. They want to send you a large sum of money to have you ship the item through Canada Post to Lagos in Nigeria. They will insist on using PayPal to protect both themselves and you because (they may say) they have had problems before.
Buy and Sell Locally
It is a good, as a rule, to be skeptical of buying and selling to anyone who is not in Canada. Read and reread all the ads you reply to, as well as any replies you may get to your ads. If your ad specifies that a buyer must be local to purchase the item, or the item must be picked up, stick to your ad. Do not offer to ship the item and do not accept PayPal for an item unless you are comfortable doing so.
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