OLX: Online store moves to curb fraud

By Winsley Masese

“For buyers and sellers at OLX, kindly beware of Brian Odinga, contact 070435****, who tricks and cons,” wrote blogger Robert Alai on social media platform Twitter.

Fraudsters are riding on the growing popularity of the classifieds site, which has seen the company move to tighten its systems to detect fraudsters before they post items online.

“Any post that comes into our system is checked to ensure that it is genuine, and once we detect fraud, we delete the post before it goes out to prospective customers,” said Mr Peter Ndiangui, OLX’s country manager.

Also, the use of the title pastor is deleted as this is identified as a possibly fraudulent post.

OLX has also embarked on a series of initiatives to educate Kenyans on how the site is used to reduce the cases of fraud. Users are urged to meet in public places, avoid giving out personal information such as bank details and instead only provide information that is relevant to the transaction.

“We would like to also discourage buyers from carrying large amounts of cash when going to meet sellers,” said Mr Ndiangui.

He added that buyers should get a better look at the products they want to buy upon meeting sellers before paying for them.

“We want to educate Kenyans on what the challenges involved in these transactions are and help them avoid them.”

However, he remains optimistic that online trade will continue to pick up as Internet use becomes more pervasive.

Ndiangui said his firm’s main aim is to help Kenyans liquidate assets they do not need and channel the money they receive towards other economic activities.

“We want to unlock the cash tied up in depreciating assets and turn it into liquid cash,” he said. “Within your home, there is such an asset.”