Thursday, November 13, 2014

Social Marketplace Portal Set to Tackle Online Scam in Nigeria

A SOCIAL marketplace portal, Mobofree said it has put in place strategy to tackle the menace online scam and high level of crimes in the country.
The company said that currently, the success of the social market place is being hampered by online scam and high level of crimes
Co-founder and chairman of the board of MoboFree, Mr. Cristobal Alonso said at the public presentation of Mobofree in Lagos that part of its strategy is to get a big part of community members  involved in scam control activities as volunteers adding that “ We have dedicated technical solution allowing to identify suspicious behaviour.”
He stated:” Every classified advert goes live only after manual check by customer support officers. We are social and empower our social network to make trading more save. Before going to meet buyer or seller each member can communicate and negotiate online without leaving MoboFree, can check common friends, photos, history, feedback and ratings of other members.”
He said further that MoboFree is social marketplace and has unique user- centric approach instead of traditional item-centric approach stressing that “We allow our buyers and sellers to get a lot of personal information about each other –starting from photos and common friends and ending with ratings or other data which allows to identify if the person is worth to trust.”
Alonso also said that negotiation and communication during buying/selling process is an important part of the African culture and as such, “We allow our members conveniently communicate and negotiate without leaving a platform. They can do it via private messages or via chat. Our members send over 8 M private messages per month. We personalize project and proposals according to customers’ behavior and interests. It allows to make buying and selling much more effective.”
He observed that it can be dangerous to go to “blind date” with buyer or seller with money or expensive item in your pocket.”
According to him, most boards of classifieds provide only poor contact info,phone and sometimes email adding that MoboFree is well adopted not only for PC and smartphones but also for old phones with small screens (so called “feature” phones).  
He said that there are over 60 % of  Africans are  accessing the internet via old phones saying that “So our technical solution makes buying and selling online available for any African user with any device.”

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