How to Buy & Sell Stuff on Kijiji and Avoid Getting Scammed

Kijiji Classifieds is a Canadian classified advertising website that belongs to the eBay Classifieds Group. You can use Kijiji to buy, sell, and trade various goods and services. Including cars, new and used furniture, and jobs, to name a few.

People using Kijiji to purchase goods and services or to make money by selling them usually report a positive experience. However, like on any market, buying or selling on Kijiji comes with the risk of scams. This article will tell you how to buy and sell stuff on the platform while avoiding the most common scams that Kijiji users report.

Buying and selling on Kijiji

Buying on Kijiji

Kijiji offers a pretty straightforward process to purchase goods on its platform. The platform’s homepage comes with a primary menu that allows you to select the categories that interest you. Some categories are car & vehicles, real estate, jobs, services, pets, community services, and rentals. If you are looking for something specific, there’s a search box that can help you find it quickly.

If you click on a product, the link will redirect you to the product’s page. Once there, you can see the product’s description and price and get some information on the seller. From this page, you can contact the seller, as shown in the image below.

It’s best to check some information about the seller before buying the product. If you click on the seller’s user name, the link will redirect you to a page where you can see their listings, reviews, and some statistics. These statistics include average response time, reply rate, and the age of the seller’s account.

When making a payment directly on Kijiji, you have several payment options to consider, including PayPal and credit card. The platform comes with a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate. This means that Kijiji encrypts all transactions so that your credit card data is safe.

Selling on Kijiji

Given its size and reputation, one can confidently say that Kijiji is a good platform to sell all sorts of things like cell phones, clothes, furniture, appliances, and even cars. You can sell things online without paying anything, although you can purchase additional advertising options. Moreover, as a marketplace for exchanging goods and services, you can also use Kijiji to find a job or offer one.

To sell on Kijiji, you will first have to register an account. Once you have an account, you can list a product by clicking on the Post ad button, which you can find in the upper right corner of your home page, as shown in the image below. Kijiji will then ask you to add a title for your ad and select a product/service category.

Once you have completed the previous steps, the website will redirect you to a new page where you will need to select the fulfillment and payment options and create your ad by adding text and images.

On the same page, you will have the possibility to choose a feature to promote your ad in exchange for a fee.

Selling on Kijiji differs from selling on eBay or Amazon in that you can sell a wider variety of products and offer services. In addition, the application process is much less time-consuming on Kijiji compared to eBay and Amazon. If you want to list a product in just a few minutes, Kijiji might be the best option to do so.

To be a successful seller on Kijiji, there are a few best practices you should consider:

• Take good pictures
• Select a competitive price. You can determine whether your price is competitive or not by looking at products similar to yours that are in a similar condition (e.g., new, used).
• Make ads that are original and likely to draw some attention
• Write a description that details the main features of the product
• Use tags to make your product searchable
• Be prepared to negotiate the price of the product assertively
• Track your progress while the ad is being displayed. By looking at how many people are viewing the ad, you can get a good idea of whether it is drawing enough attention or not.
• Include contact information and respond to inquiries as soon as possible.

When you sell something on Kijiji, most transactions will likely occur in person and with cash. Another safe alternative solution is to choose a third-party cashless payment, such as an electronic money transfer. As you might expect, frauds occasionally occur, and a few tips can help you avoid such situations. This is our next topic.

Kijiji common scams and how to avoid them

Kijiji is a safe, well-established platform with mostly positive customer reviews. However, the platform cannot guarantee all of its users come with the best intentions, for which a certain degree of caution when doing transactions is best practice. Below is a list of some of the most common types of scams that happen on the platform.

Unusual payment requests

The most common type of Kijiji scam that buyers and sellers experience is the attempt to conduct a transaction that is not face-to-face. For example, a seller with the intention to scam purchasers might tell them that they can only accept payment Via Canada Post, Western Union, Google Wallet, or other payment methods that do not involve a face-to-face transaction.

Sellers will make their unusual payment requests attractive to you by invoking all sorts of motives, some more credible than others. The message to such requests will often contain mentions of the presumed buyer’s special assignments (e.g., military assignment) and appeals to religion (e.g., “God bless”).

One risk you incur as a seller is receiving an invalid form of payment, such as invalid cheques. For this reason, we recommend that sellers only accept cash in exchange for a product or service.

In case you decide to take a cheque for a purchase, you have to make sure that the buyer has completed and dated the cheque correctly. Checks should not have any signs of alteration, and we recommend that you only accept those that have security features such as watermarks and intricate designs.

Phishing emails

Another Kijiji scam category is phishing emails in which individuals pretend to represent someone else, including an organization. These emails will try to get information on your account login or personal data such as identity and financial information.

If you receive an email from a source you have never heard of, don’t provide any information or click on any links that might redirect you to a place where you might experience a cyber-attack.

Request to change the conversation to another platform

Quite often, Kijiji scams take place outside the platform. Kijiji secures your data, which is not necessarily the case on other platforms. It is important to note that such requests are relatively common, and it may be safe to move on if the buyers/sellers only want to communicate via private email.

Bottom line: Kijiji is a safe platform to buy and sell products and services

If you are located in Canada and want to buy and/or sell products and services on a large and safe platform, Kijiji is one of your best options. Kijiji is different from eBay and Amazon in that it allows the selling and buying of a wider variety of products (e.g., cars) while also providing the possibility to offer and buy services.

Whether you are a buyer, a seller, or both, there are a few common Kijiji scams that you need to be aware of. Common scams include requesting unusual payment methods or changing the means of communication and phishing emails.

If you believe someone is trying to scam you on Kijiji, contact their customer support and explain your situation. If someone scams you on the platform, contact both Kijiji’s customer support and local authorities.

Fortunately, scams are often similar to each other, and they are easy to recognize as such. With some precaution, you will most likely have a positive experience while selling or buying on Kijiji.