# iPad on Kijiji Montreal



## DBF (May 4, 2005)

I saw an ad for iPad 3g 64 GB for $499.99. Owner says he has a shop in Chibougmeau Quebec. He ia also selling Nikons. iTouches etc. Seems TGTBT. Is there any way of checking using serial number of Ipad, if he supplies it to me.

Thx,

Dan


----------



## mikef (Jun 24, 2003)

Run, don't walk away! This is a scam!

Think to yourself- how is this vendor the only person in Canada selling an iPad for $380 less than Apple's retail price?


----------



## Adrian. (Nov 28, 2007)

DBF said:


> I saw an ad for iPad 3g 64 GB for $499.99. Owner says he has a shop in Chibougmeau Quebec. He ia also selling Nikons. iTouches etc. Seems TGTBT. Is there any way of checking using serial number of Ipad, if he supplies it to me.
> 
> Thx,
> 
> Dan


I have a 32GB 3G for sale. I'll ship to montreal. Check classifieds.


----------



## DBF (May 4, 2005)

mikef said:


> Run, don't walk away! This is a scam!
> 
> Think to yourself- how is this vendor the only person in Canada selling an iPad for $380 less than Apple's retail price?


I reported to Kijiji that the ad was a possible scam, I see that the ad has disappeared from Kijiji. Hope nobody got taken.


----------



## Andrew Pratt (Feb 16, 2007)

there's tons of scams on kijiji for popular items like the iPad. Some are getting pretty clever too and its not till the last moment that you start to suspect things aren't what they seem.


----------



## Macfury (Feb 3, 2006)

Andrew Pratt said:


> there's tons of scams on kijiji for popular items like the iPad. Some are getting pretty clever too and its not till the last moment that you start to suspect things aren't what they seem.


They're getting a little more sophisticated, with the occasional full disclosure of some minor wear and prices slightly elevated above the "this is ridiulously low" price.


----------



## lnorman (Nov 12, 2007)

I'd be pretty sure this is all scam, I.e. There is no iPad, no shop in chibougameau etc. 
I have recently come to realize that even for more realistically priced items, some of this is stolen merchandise. Some members here seem not bothered by this. I found some effort was required to ensure that what I was buying was not. You will not get the very best price you can see this way.
Good luck.


----------



## Guest (Nov 13, 2010)

Kijiji is where all the serious scammers (i.e. professional scammers) seem to do their business right now ... things there don't work as they do on craigslist (who seem to have more experience dealing with that sort of thing and have clear processes in place for that sort of thing that protects the purchaser). 

For example, with Kijiji the scammers love it because they have full and ultimate control over deleting their own ads and accounts, so as soon as they've reeled someone in they immediately delete their ad and kill their user account on Kijiji and there's no more "paper trail" ... as Kijiji allows both the ads and the user accounts to be completely deleted by the end user and it is instantaneous. As soon as the scammer hits delete it's gone from the records. Craiglist, who have a lot more experience in this area, retain copies of ALL posted ads, correspondence through their anonymous addresses, etc for just such usage (i.e. law enforcement, evidence, etc) and only "flags" things for removal but don't actually delete them for a preset amount of time. 

The fraud squad cop that was working with me on my complaint says he spends the majority of his time trying to chase down Kijiji scammers with little success and sees very little of the "pros" using craiglist because of the reasons I listed above. The "pro" scammers love it because it is all as easy as a free email account and once they delete they are gone and non-traceable. Incidentally I ended up dealing with this officer about 6 months later strictly by chance (he sold a guitar amp on cragslist that I bought LOL). When he brought it over for me to test out we recognized each other and had a chuckle over the fact that he didn't list it on Kijiji 

Also just for people interested, no, I didn't get suckered into a too good to be true scam ... I bought a fairly expensive ($1800) camera lens for a reasonable price that was advertised as being perfectly functional and in "mint/works like brand new" condition, but which had some serious issues that were not obvious during the initial testing and took a couple of hours working with it at home for me to notice. When I brought the issues to the attention of the seller later that evening they proceeded to blame me for damaging the lens in transit, accusing me of trying to scam them, threatening to have me arrested, threatening bodily harm to me, etc etc. They ended up even deleting their email account the next day, blocking my phone number from calling them and more stuff that's just not worth getting into.

At the end of the day they got away with it because of Kijiji's "instant delete" -- had their been a retrievable record provided by Kijiji I would have had legal recourse -- even though I had a PDF copy of what was posted as the ad it wasn't good enough to prove that the user in question posted it. It cost me $450 worth of repairs that ultimately took over 6 months to get resolved -- which was finally thankfully resolved in the end by Canon Canada replacing the lens with a new one because they repeatedly screwed up the repairs and after 4 trips to their service department still didn't solve the issue (a focusing problem). They also had record of the previous owner bringing it in to get a repair estimate for the exact same issue but declining to get the repairs done -- about a week before they sold it on Kjiji -- so the seller knew exactly what the problem with the lens was before advertising it as a pristine and fully functional lens.

Needless to say I'm very cautious when purchasing anything on Kijiji now. Buyer beware!


----------



## Guest (Nov 13, 2010)

DBF said:


> I reported to Kijiji that the ad was a possible scam, I see that the ad has disappeared from Kijiji. Hope nobody got taken.


Unfortunately all their "scam" department does is delete ads and user accounts, which is good in a way (no one else will be scammed) but bad in a way that they don't report such things to the appropriate authorities to investigate.


----------



## ldphoto (Jul 9, 2009)

I've found Kijiji to be somewhat of a hassle, but I've had good success on UsedOttawa.com (they have sites for most major cities), both buying and selling.


----------



## lnorman (Nov 12, 2007)

mguertin,
I'm sympathetic that you got taken advantage of by a dishonest seller, who did not disclose the condition of what he was selling. But I see that as quite apart from the usual Internet scam, in fact I'm not really sure I'd use the word scam. You could just as easily have had the same misadventure pulling a phone number off an ad posted somewhere. I guess kijiji offers an easy way for the seller to be untraceable, but it is not unique that way. On my recent thread here I found that many sellers and buyers expect each other to be untraceable. But it's up to you if you want to play that game. There is nothing stopping you from requiring sufficient proof from the seller to make him traceable. I'm sure in your case he would have bolted if you asked enough questions. Which would have saved you considerable aggravation. 
Of course buying used would have it's hazards anyway. Even if you had info on the seller, I guess you would have to decide if it was worth your while to take him to small claims court. You would probably win if you could prove the earlier visit to the repair shop. Without that though, it would be your word against his that you didn't damage it yourself. If you accepted it after inspecting it, I think you would be told " caveat emptor " and be out of luck.


----------



## SoyMac (Apr 16, 2005)

mguertin, and others;
Thanks for posting about these experiences.

Even though I'm careful and have never been scammed, it wouldn't take a very high level of cleverness to get something past me. 

Knowledge is power, and threads like these make all of us a little wiser and better protected in our buy-and-sell dealings.

Thanks for posting your experiences and insight - you're doing everyone a service.
:clap:


----------



## screature (May 14, 2007)

mguertin said:


> Kijiji is where all the serious scammers (i.e. professional scammers) seem to do their business right now ... things there don't work as they do on craigslist (who seem to have more experience dealing with that sort of thing and have clear processes in place for that sort of thing that protects the purchaser)...
> 
> 
> Needless to say I'm very cautious when purchasing anything on Kijiji now. Buyer beware!


Too bad about your experience with Kijiji mg... I am always cautious with purchasing anything from CL, Kijiji or eBay. The buyer must always beware with any of these. I have bought and sold dozens of items on Kijiji and have never had even an inkling of trouble. That being said I see the scammers all the time, they are in most cases pretty easy to spot because they are selling for ridiculously low prices and often are not from the city where the item is for sale or offer some lame excuse like "I live in Ottawa but have recently been transfered to Toronto for work or school" or some other BS reason for why they have to ship the product to you. I would never buy anything from Kijiji or CL where you couldn't pick it up in person. I know this wasn't your experience, but I would also say that it doesn't sound like your experience was from a "pro" scammer" just a rotten apple. 

Just out of curiosity what were the serious issues with the lens that you didn't notice on initial testing?


----------

