How to stay safe on sites like Kijiji and Craigslist

If you use the online classified site Kijiji, this is your worst nightmare: you arrive to check out that room for rent you saw, only to be assaulted by the person who placed the ad.

This is apparently what happened to a woman recently when she arrived at a condo on Kennedy Rd. and McNicoll Ave. in Scarborough, Ontario. According to police, she was offered alcohol and marijuana before being lead to a part of the building requiring keycard access where she was allegedly sexually assaulted.

Though thousands of Kijiji transactions have been conducted safely and without incident over its ten-year history, this isn't the first time crimes like this have been facilitated through their site. In 2013, Tim Bosma of Ancaster, Ontario was kidnapped and murdered after he left to help two men test drive the truck he was selling on the site.

“We don't actually have statistics on how often this type of thing happens, but I can say its very rare that we hear instances of sexual assault, murder or other crimes happening through Kijiji. But obviously the risk is there, which is why it's a priority to make sure our users are well-educated on how to stay safe,” says Shawn McIntyre, Kijiji's community manger.

So how do you stay safe on Kijiji?

It's dangerous to go alone

Constable Scott Mills, social media relations officer for the Toronto Police Service, says a lot of staying safe during online classified transactions comes down to your own common sense.

“Don't go alone when you meet people. Meet at public places like a coffee shop. Of course that's a bit of a challenge when you're renting a room, so when you do the arraignments, ensure that you have somebody with you,” says Mills.

If the person you respond to seems resistant to meeting in public place or doesn't want you to bring a friend, McIntyre says that's an instant red flag and even Constable Mills follows his own advice when posting and responding to online ads.

“My current accommodations were a Kijiji ad and the young lady who placed the ad didn't know me at all at that time, so she had a male friend with her, which I thought was a really good idea,” says Mills.

Safe zones

Another idea being piloted is transaction safe zones – public rooms inside local police stations where online buyers and sellers can meet to exchange their goods.

“We're actually exploring that idea ourselves,” says McIntyre of Kijiji. “The problem is, since we're in 100 different communities across Canada we would have to work with every single police agency in each community, so we've reached out to a few communities who are testing this in Canada and are offering our services and our website to make it happen.”

So far Canadian cities perusing this idea include Vancouver, Niagara and Calgary, but it doesn't look like Toronto will join them any time soon.