Jiji Nigeria, an African online marketplace, has given out four tips to protect its customers from the activities of fraudsters, as well as ways to make safe online transactions, as the world looks forward to the upcoming Black Friday, one of the biggest annual shopping events.
Majolie Obaje, the PR and Marketing Head of Jiji Nigeria, who gave the tips, said that Black Friday has revolutionised digital trade as reports estimated that 154.5 million people purchased goods and services worth about $8.9 billion in the United States during the 2021’s Black Friday.
Obaje urged customers not to give out their financial information to anybody. “Under no circumstances should you give out your bank account details, ATM PIN, online banking OTP, or any other sensitive information that could be misused by a third party.”
She advised customers to always check the website link properly because fraudsters use cloned websites to trap victims, adding that customers should be mindful of the spelling of the website’s URL.
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She said that customers also need to be careful of what they click on by exercising extra caution in clicking on links on their phones because hackers can insert malicious code on a website that extracts people’s online payment details.
“Four, if it appears too good to be true, it probably is. Imagine that a vendor offers you an item at a ridiculously lower cost than everyone else. Think before you part with your cash. Check other vendors or sites for a comparative price benchmark for that product, and try not to pay ahead before seeing and inspecting the products,” Obaje said.
She however assured that Jiji Nigeria will always find ways to deliver value to customers by improving its platform to ensure that people get the best deals easily.
“With us, people can sell or buy products and services based on their needs and budgets in a safe and secure manner,” she added.
On the need for safety tips, she said that Gal Ringel, a cyber security expert, and CEO of Mine, said that up to 30 to 50 percent of the annual average of data breaches happen in November and December alone.
This, according to her, is why Black Friday presents an incentive for fraudsters to carry out their nefarious activities.
