So I consider myself a fairly knowledgable person when it comes to phones and I would like to think that I am very cautious when doing these kinds of deals but I have a warning story for the readers.

I was browsing Kijiji because i wanted to buy a second hand expensive Samsung phone. I was looking for days and days when a new posting caught my eye. It was a lot cheaper than the other postings so I immediately contacted the seller.

He responded and I asked him the usual questions about the condition of the phone, etc. The first warning I got was that he seemed to keep avoiding all queries of whether the phone works perfectly or not. Eventually, he responded that it works. I asked him four times. I got nothing more than that. This small suspicion was dissuaded by the fact that he had given me his phone number and we were texting there. Okay. I thought- I have his phone number at least. My second suspicion arose when I saw that his Kijiji account was 6 days old. No reviews. Nothing. Brand new account. This should have been where I stopped all communication but I wanted a new phone. I was looking forward to it so much that I brushed it all aside. My mistake.

Then, he asked to meet up downtown in a busy place. He asked me a hundred questions about what I was wearing and where I was standing, etc when I arrived. Okay. He might be weary of people. No biggie. Once he came to me, he showed me the phone. It was sealed. He took out a receipt and showed me the IMEI number on the receipt and on the box. Both matched. He said that he used to work at Samsung so he knew about my hesitance. He asked me to check whether the IMEI was blacklisted. We checked. It wasn't. I was still cautious and something seemed very off. I noticed that the phone was a dual SIM and I told him that as far as I'm aware, Samsung doesn't sell dual SIM phones in Canada. He came up with a very convincing BS story on the spot about Samsung accepting international phones and that it was all the on the receipt. I was hesitant but I really wanted the phone and it was cheap!

So, he asked me to show him the money. I said that I wasn't done checking the phone. He said that he was taking a small break from work so he needed to get back quickly. I told him that I wanted to open the phone and I couldn't just pay him without checking. He convinced me that it was brand new and sealed. I checked. Samsung's official seals were there. Okay. He asked for the money again. I was hesitant but I took out the money. He said that I had his phone number if there was anything wrong. Yeah, that's true, I thought. I handed the money to him. He looked at it and said, 'I'm not even going to count it because I trust you'. Huuuuuuge red flag. Alarm bells went off inside my head. He took the money from me and went off into the crowd. I was pretty shocked- no one takes that amount of cash and doesn't count it so I ran to my car, took off the packaging, opened the box, and took the phone out. That's when my stomach fell a hundred feet into the ground. I could tell by the weight of the phone, the build quality, and the screen thay this was a fake. A complete counterfeit and copy. Damn.

I ran back to try and find him but he had disappeared. I called him on his phone but he had disconnected his phone and probably thrown away the SIM. I was gutted. I spent the rest of my day in utter discontent and depression. That was a lot of money I had just thrown away. I saw the red flags but kept going. Sigh.

So, folks. Let my story be your caution. Always, always check anything before you give money to random strangers on the internet. Never trust the fact that people have given you their phone numbers. It means nothing. Check how many days the seller has been on Kijiji. And if you feel even slightly hesitant. Get out. Go. It's not worth it.