Man warning others after falling victim to e-transfer text scam through Kijiji

A Toronto man is warning the public after he fell victim to an intricate scam targeting individuals selling items through online platforms like Kijiji and Facebook marketplace.

“I’ve been on Kijiji for a very long time”, Alex tells CityNews, adding that he’s come across his fair share of scammers through these platforms.

But this one took him by surprise.

Alex says he was selling a pair of skis online and received a message from someone who presented themselves as an interested buyer. After discussing the price, the individual informed Alex that he would be sending his son to pick up the item and requested Alex provide his phone number to connect.

Not an uncommon practice when arranging these exchanges.

“So I had provided my phone number and then immediately they said, ‘Okay, I’ve just e-transferred you the funds’”, explained Alex, who received a text message that looked almost identical to a legitimate one you would expect to receive.

Copy of text message seller received in suspicious e-transfer text scam. CITYNEWS

When he clicked on the link provided, he immediately became suspicious.

“When you click on the link, it takes you to a page that mimics that of Interac’s e-transfer page,” said Alex, who noticed that the url displayed wasn’t quite right.

“They did a really good job in recreating what the actual site looks like. But it’s just a website that collects all your password information to get into your bank account”.

According to him, the page displayed a message to reset the transaction followed by asking the seller to input their online banking security questions and login information.

“I was midway through and thought these questions aren’t right.” and that’s when he quickly closed the page.

As soon as he tried to log into online banking, he was prompted to answer security questions, sounding the alarm that the scammer had already been tampering with his account.

Kijiji’s website advised users to avoid displaying their phone number in their ad in order to avoid text-related scams.

“We suggest that you remove your phone number from your ad. We know that listing your phone number helps transactions move along more quickly, but at this time we have no way of preventing this type of message, so it is your safest bet.”

Going forward, Alex says he won’t be providing his number to future interested buyers.

“You know I consider myself relatively savvy and I was pretty shocked. I was really disappointed with myself that I succumbed to this,” he tells CityNews, explaining that by sharing his story he hopes he can prevent this from happening to future victims on the platform.