Before you meet
- Call before you travel. A voice that dodges precise questions about the item tells you plenty.
- Ask for an extra photo, taken there and then, showing a detail you choose. A photo lifted from a catalogue cannot be reshot on request.
- Pick a public, busy place, in daylight: a filling station, a shopping centre, the front of a bank branch. Never an unknown home, never at night.
- Tell someone where you are going and when you expect to be back.
- Be wary of a price far below the market. On a phone or a laptop, a price half of what it should be is not a bargain, it is bait.
- Check the “verified seller” badge and how long the shop has been around. A badge doesn't guarantee quality, but it means an ID document was checked.
At handover
- Inspect the item before you take out the money. Switch the phone on, open the camera, check the serial number, try the garment on.
- For a second-hand device, ask for the original receipt or the box. For a vehicle, the registration document and an ID matching the name on it.
- Pay once, and only once you have the item in your hands.
- Count the cash on the spot, or wait for the operator's confirmation: an SMS is not proof, only your balance is.
- Never give out your Mobile Money PIN, your withdrawal code, or the six-digit code sent to sign you in to Wassa-wassa.
The scams we see here
- The deposit before the viewing. “Send 10,000 to reserve it, there's a lot of interest.” Nobody needs your money before showing you the item.
- Transport costs. The seller is “travelling”, a courier will come, but transport must be paid first. The courier does not exist.
- The fake payment SMS. A message imitating MTN or Orange announces an incoming transfer. Open your app or dial your operator's code: if the balance hasn't moved, nothing arrived.
- The overpayment. The buyer says they sent too much and asks you to refund the difference. The first transfer was fake; the refund would be very real.
- Application fees for a job. No serious employer charges a candidate — not for a test, not for processing, not for compulsory training.
- Viewing fees for a flat. Paying to see an apartment, or paying a deposit before you have the key and the lease, ends badly.
- The code you're asked to read out. “I've sent you a code, tell me what it says to confirm.” That code takes over your account; it confirms nothing.
- The link to click. A page imitating Wassa-wassa asking for your password or your Mobile Money PIN. We never ask for anything of the sort through a link.
What Wassa-wassa will never do
Anyone writing to you in the name of Wassa-wassa from a number other than the one shown in our terms is impersonating us. Report them.
Sellers: your reflexes
- Ship nothing before checking your balance — not your inbox.
- Do not hand the item to a “courier” sent by a buyer you have never had on the phone.
- Never share a photo of your ID with a buyer. Only the platform asks for it, and only in the verification screen.
- Keep the conversation on WhatsApp or in the app: if there is a dispute, that is your evidence.
- A buyer who rushes you, refuses every call and writes only in short messages is a warning sign, not an opportunity.
Reporting
Every listing and every shop carries a “Report” button. Pick the closest reason: fraudulent listing, banned item, misleading price or description, inappropriate content, duplicate, or other. A report takes ten seconds and protects the next person.
Report an order that goes wrong too, within 24 hours of handover: after that, establishing what happened becomes very hard.
If it happened to you
- Keep everything: screenshots of the conversation, the number used, the listing link, the operator's messages.
- Report the listing and the account on the platform: that lets us close the account and warn others.
- Tell your Mobile Money operator at once if money has left your account.
- File a complaint. Police emergency: 117. Gendarmerie: 113. A filed complaint is what lets investigators tie several victims to the same account.