# security question -- etransfers & Kijiji



## Doug Gifford

A fellow in Gatineau has a pair of EV ZLX 15P speakers at a reasonable price. I'm in Gananoque (two hours away) but my son is in Ottawa and the seller has agreed to deliver to him when the weather clears (tomorrow?). I'll pick up the speakers when I pick up my son for reading week.

I've sent the money to my son by etransfer and he'll have to get the cash to give the seller in the old fashioned kijiji handoff way.

This could have been done more simply with an etransfer to the seller, but I'm unsure how viable that is for a Kijiji item. For future reference, how do you manage these things to ensure a secure exchange?


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## Lincoln

You did it the best possible way. Anything else would be a risk.


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## dillinger4ever

What I did before was to send a payment without the password and send the password via SMS once the person sent me a proof of shipping. 

You could have done something similar in that situation and have given your son the password for the emt.


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## dtsaudio

Not a bad idea. However there is one problem. What if the seller has auto deposit, like I do.
No password required. The money is automatically deposited in my account. Most banks support this, and there is no way for the sender to defeat it.


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## Guncho

Secure as in your get what you pay for or secure as in don't get hacked?

If it's to insure you get what you pay for, the only secure way is cash on delivery.


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## vbbish

I have tried a couple of different methods. But having trust built and feeling 100% confident in the seller and transaction goes a long way. 

I have on multiple occasions sent the e transfer with password to be confirmed at shipping. As others mentioned this dosnt work if they have autodeposit, but you are alerted that the seller has auto deposit and wont need to answer a question. Which for me does change things, but you're always notified first. 

For kijiji deals that I dont feel 100% confident in, I ask for a signed bill of sale complete with photo id as another level of protection. And almost always ask for a phone conversation as another level of protection. 

Ultimately as soon as the money is sent though you are at risk. So making sure you are comfortable with the person you're doing business with and the item your receiving is number 1.

Ive walked away from some amazing guitars and fantastic deals because my gut said something was wrong. Above all trust the voice in youre head, they are almost always right.


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## sambonee

I get a scan of a drivers license. S
smokes out the crooks.


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## bentwire17

Guy put ad on Kijiji WTB a certain guitar .
Guy out west says “I got your guitar”.
Provided photo ID drivers license by email.
All good . 
Etransfer sent .
Boom!!
Money gone , fake ID.
FWIW.....


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## Budda

Cash in hand. I sent my brother funds for the axe fx, he paid the seller and got it, then we figured out how I would get it. Not really any other hassle free way, given you have someone picking up the item.

If seller seems sketchy, meet at a police kijiji spot or monitored workplace.


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## marcos

You did the right thing. No way should you send cash to someone on Kijiji. Oh and get your son to meet up at safe place.


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## troyhead

I’ve done EMT with kijiji on two types of occasions:

I was with the buyer/seller and the transfer was sent and confirmed on the spot. 

I really wanted something where EMT was the only option and the cost was low enough that I was willing to accept the risk that I’d lose the money.


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## player99

Never ever ever send EMT to anyone. Everybody funny. Now you funny too.

Just go PayPal and pay the minimal fees for them. It's about $30 for $1000.


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## Kerry Brown

I’ve been on the seller end of an eTransfer. He did the transfer on his phone then we waited until it was in my account before I would let him take the guitar. We had to wait about fifteen minutes.


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## player99

Kerry Brown said:


> I’ve been on the seller end of an eTransfer. He did the transfer on his phone then we waited until it was in my account before I would let him take the guitar. We had to wait about fifteen minutes.


I've sent money and it has taken many hours to almost a day to go through.


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## vadsy

I’ve had good luck with Kij etransfers in person and shipped through the mail. Sometimes taking a chance lands you a great deal


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## Doug Gifford

marcos said:


> …Oh and get your son to meet up at safe place.


It will be at the house he's in. It's about 100 pounds of gear.


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## nbs2005

It's just gut instinct and only transferring money that you can afford to lose. I bought an amp from a guy in Sask. Found it on Kijiji, traded messages a bit and had a phone chat. Turns out one of his professors at York was a friend of mine. Sent the money, got the amp.


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## Kerry Brown

player99 said:


> I've sent money and it has taken many hours to almost a day to go through.


It depends on the banks. We were both Scotia Bank customers. He was prepared to come back the next day if need be. The guitar was not leaving my hands before I saw the money 

I receive quite a few eTransfers as payment from my customers. It used to take a long time, especially if a credit union was involved. For the past few months it rarely takes 1/2 an hour no matter what banks are involved. They have changed something in the system to speed things up. The slowdown now is email severs. SMTP is a best effort protocol and is not guaranteed to be instant. It is not unusual for emails to take a few hours to get to the recipient.


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## Doug Gifford

Well, the deal went through and my son has them and has plugged them in to see if the lights come on (they do). They will arrive in Gananoque in a few weeks.

Thank you all for the advice and assurances.


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## hatspin

Kerry Brown said:


> I’ve been on the seller end of an eTransfer. He did the transfer on his phone then we waited until it was in my account before I would let him take the guitar. We had to wait about fifteen minutes.


Yup, just did this the other day as the seller and waited 20 minutes. It can take longer for larger amounts if it's someone you've never sent money to before because the bank supposedly has some fraud detection running before it's sent.

It is possible to resend the notification in your banking app though. I did that once as the buyer after waiting 30 minutes, then it immediately went through.

Sent from my SM-G970W using Tapatalk


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## keithb7

I recently sold a guitar through Kijiji. Buyer is a complete stranger. We had no known common contacts. Buyer never inspected the guitar. Never called me. He lived 3.5 hr drive away.

The buyer asked for a copy of my Driver’s License. I blocked out some sensitive personal info, then sent him an image of it. He quickly proceeded to send me $3000 via EMT. I dropped the guitar off to a local contact of his. The guitar was in the buyers hands later that same night. I followed up and he’s ecstatic over the guitar.

Easiest transaction ever. Holy s**t though. He definitely took a risk that I would not have. I would never send that kinda cash unsecured, based on trust.

Maybe he was a Hell’s Angels member and cared little. If there was a problem I might have had a local chapter member show up at my door with a crow-bar. Ya never know! Be careful out there.


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## Geert van der Veen

player99 said:


> Never ever ever send EMT to anyone. Everybody funny. Now you funny too.
> 
> Just go PayPal and pay the minimal fees for them. It's about $30 for $1000.


I agree.

Peace of mind is worth the minimal cost PayPal charges.

I recently got involved in an e-transfer interaction, which worked perfectly in the end.

However, I had initially suggested PayPal as a payment method, and due to some minor misunderstandings on the seller's part and my part during the transaction, we both became a little uneasy during the transaction, and he said to me that he would rather have used PayPal. 

I once had an ebay PayPal purchase go badly wrong fro me (the seller did not send the item to me), and appealed to ebay but to no avail. PayPal, on the other hand, refunded me almost all of the money I paid.


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