You remember that LoveFindMe website which got lots of media mentions and was aggressively advertised? It is no more. Not because it wasn’t a good system, but because the managers developed a big head and failed to apply simple intelligence in dealing with 419 and local scammers in cheating those who were looking for love from the site.
West African and local conmen registered in droves on LoveFindMe and we got lots of complaints from those seeking love that they got conned by people whom they knew from the website or potential suitors asking for money to help them in emergency situations. That is how the traffic started dropping from the site until it completely had to be pulled off.
Dealfish Kenya is a local arm of MIH groups Kalahari Ads which is the Dealfish SA. The site is great and the platform is very wonderful. I had the opportunity to sell an Amazon Kindle and my car through the website in record time. Someone bought my old BMW within 1 week of putting the advert on the site. I got a call from the guy who was flying from Mombasa and was heading to Embu and he really liked my car. So he told me to drive my car to Embu town for completion of sale. I employed simple security and sealed the deal with the guy in Embu. My Amazon DX was bought within 2 days. Not much hassle.
But a very ugly side of the platform is really coming up. I have run various classifieds sites and seen the likes of Craigslist and the short-lived Butterfly Kenya portal go down. The managers of the sites ignore simple tell tale signs of spammers. If you Google iPhone on the website, you will get 70% fake advertisers and scammers with UK, Nigerian and US addresses and mostly using Live.com or Hotmail addresses to advertise on the website.
They will claiming to be able to sell you an iPhone 4 for as low as USD 400. Many buyers are now aware of the such scams and the few who are not aware will become aware the moment they loose money. This will be the start of the slow but painful death of Dealfish Kenya. But the people managing the website lead by Moses Kemibaro might be able to rescue the situation if they hear the honest cry and not treat them as hate. Moses, simply purge these scammers. E-commerce simply depend on confidence of the buyer. The moment that is gone, you wont exist. And for a young market like ours, it is very easy to wipe away the confidence.
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