Friday, September 20, 2019

Frauds on used electronics goods sites

I was recently looking for an old iPhone and visited multiple used electronic goods websites. I even did a few transactions. Here is my learning from this experience.

  1. Always be wary of sellers who have a very good deal. For example, somebody selling a brand new iPhone for 20 K. These just fake products. I did enter in conversations with few of them and many of them quickly wanted to take you off the platform and have a WhatsApp conversation with me. These people generally had mobile numbers registered abroad. I found a few sellers with mobile numbers with country code of Nigeria.
  2. Always do a due diligence of sellers. You will generally find them listing a single product across multiple cities.   If you find similar spelling mistakes in products listed in different cities, generally not above board sellers.
  3. Use a platform that provides pickup and delivery and always use that. Even though not absolutely guaranteed, there is a better chance of you getting a genuine product if it was delivered by the platform. Three of my orders were never delivered because the seller refused to answer the phone after accepting the order.
  4. If the platform offers Assured service, like QuikrAssured, buy products through that even if they cost more.
If you can afford, stay away from this platform.