One of the unsafest African marketplace platforms recently announced that it won two awards with one being on safety.
My experience on the platform since posting a device has been the absolute opposite, the platform is full of thieves and scammers.
First of all, the requirement to post an ad is just having pictures, you don’t even have to take them and can download and upload them from the internet. There is no verification that the item you’re selling is yours and not stolen or damaged or even if it exists, that’s all up to the buyer to confirm.
Jiji doesn’t require any form of documentation. Just post your pictures and wait for naive Kenyansm how is that even remotely safe?
Speaking of thieves and scammers, they don’t even hide, they call immediately (mainly using an airtel number) an advert is up and ask to meet somewhere, a very common one is any java of your choice when you get three to four people telling you the same, you have to be very wary.
Buying is a little bit easier since you can avoid sellers who don’t have physical shops, but that’s up to you, Jiji will not tell you this, you have to engage the seller for the info. If you don’t believe me, simply search for an iPhone device, and there they are, in the hundreds if not thousands, They list the phones at an incredibly low price and con Kenyans.
Take a look at this iPhone 12 Pro Max 256 GB Gold listing, does it look like a genuine sale? Jiji lists the market price at 107k but can’t flag this advert?
Just a few months ago, the Jiji platform was on the news after CBC’s Marketplace found similarly in a report that “cars stolen from Ontario and Quebec were openly being advertised and sold on the platform.
For sure Jiji is doing a lot to make sure you are safe, for instance, they give you safety tips like don’t pay in advance, meeting the seller in a safe public place, etc.
That’s about it, I cannot fathom how such a platform becomes the Safest Online Shopping Platform. Apparently, it received perfect five-star scores on safety. LOL.
Jiji, formerly OLX is far from safe. There is a lot that could be done to improve both buyer and seller safety than a bunch of safety tips.
