The idea for buying from Tonaton or any other digital platform is for convenience, cost-effectiveness and timeliness sake.

Unfortunately, some people take advantage of these digital marketplaces to defraud other people of their hard-earned money.

In this article, we take you through three of such ways through which you could be defrauded on Tonaton.

1. Payment Before Delivery

Buying and selling move together. Once there is no buying, there is no selling.

So, while you prepare to buy your next product on Tonaton, make sure only to pay for products you have purchased and have in hand.

Scammers on Tonaton put up ads for products they’re supposedly selling. As a buyer, when you contact them, they’ll convince you about the quality of the product and encourage you to buy.

When you reach an agreement on the price, they’ll then ask you to send the money so they could send the products to you via the preferred means of delivery.

For those who select bus as their means of delivery, these scammers can go to the extent of going to the station with a friend who acts as a driver and speaks to convince you that your product has been received and should be sent to you.

They’ll then request of you to send the money for the product through mobile money.

While there are genuine people willing to send products by this means, chances are that you’re dealing with a criminal in such situations.

2. Delivery Fee Charged Upfront

Apart from Fedex, EMS and Ghana post, the other means of delivery take delivery fee from receivers and not senders.

As such, when purchasing from Tonaton, which primarily uses buses as the means of delivery, the seller doesn’t have to make payments for delivery.

The buyer is entitled to make payment upon receiving the package and confirming its accuracy.

In view of this, any seller who wants you to pay delivery fee even before your products are dispatched to you is likely to be a criminal.

For most scammers, they’d inform you that the VIP bus or any other bus service wants you to pay a certain amount for delivery and they do not have any amount on them so you should pay the fee through mobile money.

They’ll then try enticing you by telling you to deduct the delivery fee from the actual price when you finally receive the item.

For those interested in cars, you’re likely to hear two options when it comes to delivery of your cars.

You’ll be informed to either pay for the car to be rolled from its present destination to you or you send money for fuel so that car is driven to you.

Either of these options is fake and fraudulent. You’ll pay alright but never get to see your car.

Note: Scammers believe in gathering small small than losing big. A scammer believes that getting 100 cedis from 100 people is better than getting one person to pay 10,000 cedis. So unless you do not value your “small monies”, you can avail yourself to such thieves.

3. Fake Products Priced As Originals

We all know that for every product on the market now, there is a fake version.

Some of these scammers go all the way to get imitations of original products to sell online.

They then price the products at the exact cost of the original.

The unsuspecting buyer then goes in to buy the product, thinking he has bought the original product.

To prevent this, it is proffered that first-time buyers of certain items (Electronic gadgets mostly) get people who have experience in dealing with such items to check the items before they pay.

Conclusion: Though all the above points are ways through which one could be defrauded on Tonaton, it is not a perfect list of what happens. These are from experiences of others. You still hold the final decision when buying on digital stores. Again, this list does not apply to products sold directly by Tonaton (Products that have the BUy Now tag).

One of the major concerns for buyers on digital shops such as Tonaton and Jiji is how to differentiate fake accounts from real ones.

Over the years, many people have fallen prey to fraudulent deals on Tonaton and Jiji. Thousands of hard Ghanaian cedis have been lost to such fraudulent acts.

In view of this, it is important that we set ourselves free from such scavenging criminals who pitch their tents on the digital super markets.

The purpose of this article is to outline some rules to observe so as to avert the painful situation of being scammed on Jiji, Tonaton and any other digital shops.

If you’ve ever been scammed on any of those sites, you’ve learnt your lesson the hard way and this could help prevent future occurrences.

To you who hasn’t been scammed yet, this is definitely a precautionary list you should keep close to your heart at all times.

1. Do Not Look Out For Extremely Cheap Products

Before you go searching something on Tonaton or Jiji, be sure to have a fair idea of the market price for such products.

For instance, if you’re searching for a car, you should know the brand of car you want and the expected price of that car even before you go searching.

So, while searching keep tabs on prices that are within the range of the market price.

If your car is expected to cost you around 30,000 cedis, don’t go looking at ads pricing that same car at 8,000 cedis or 10,000 cedis. Chances are that you’re in for a time-wasting experience or you risk being scammed.

 

2. Do not search for products in locations really far from you

Luckily for all of us, such digital marketplaces provide room for you to choose the exact destination where you wish to buy your items from.

As a precautionary measure, it is necessary for you to only search for products in places closer to your present location.

In case you wish to search for products at a place far from you, be sure to have a trusted relative who lives around that area.

The rationale behind this, is for you to be able to ascertain through your relative, if the seller is an authentic person or not.

When the location of the product is closer to you, you can go, meetup with the seller yourself at a public place to check out the goods and make payment physically.

3. Do not pay money for transportation or fuel without receiving the product first

Humans have become so smart and cunning that trust is a very expensive gift these days.

With a huge chunk of the Ghanaian youth finding pleasure in scam, new ways of defrauding the unsuspecting individual keep coming.

To avoid being scammed, it is important that you only pay for delivery or fuel you when you receive your items.

Do not be deceived to send monies under the pretense that VIP buses or other delivery services wish to receive some money before your goods are delivered.

Apart from people you already know and trust, no seller on these platforms should convince you to pay your delivery fee upfront.

You stand the chance of being swindled if you fall for such tricks.

4. Do not meet the seller at his home or private location

Aside being scammed, one other thing we should be weary of is being robbed or murdered.

As such, it is important that if you opt for a physical meeting with the seller, such meetings should be held at a public place.

You could meet them at the nearest police station, shopping mall, Pub or bank or any other public space.

If the seller has genuine intentions, he’ll avail himself to meet you at any public location close by.

5. Do Not meet the seller at night

Businesses thrive more during the day than at night. Also, the night comes with lots of unknown thoughts as darkness itself symbolizes evil.

One of the worst things you can ever do is to allow yourself to meet a seller in the evening.

Irrespective of where you are or what the circumstances are, make sure to meet the seller in an open environment during the day.

This enables you to check the product thoroughly so as to prevent the situation of being given the wrong product.

Conclusion: Your safety on the Internet is very important. Luckily, you have all the power to keep yourself protected from scammers. These five rules discussed here should help you purchase your goods and services on Jiji and Tonaton without so much fear of being defrauded.