Almost every scam on a classifieds app is a variation of one thing: getting you to part with money or goods before you can check anything. If you take nothing else from this page, take the four rules below.
On this page
The four rules
1. Never pay before you see the item
No deposit. No "to reserve it for you". No "delivery fee". No "inspection fee". No "customs clearing". A seller who won't show you the item before taking money is either a scammer or someone you shouldn't buy from anyway. There is no exception to this rule.
2. Meet in a busy public place, in daylight
A bank forecourt, a filling station, a mall, a police station car park. Not a quiet street, not at night, not their house, not your house. Tell someone where you're going. Take someone with you for anything expensive.
3. Inspect it, then pay, then take it
In that order, in one meeting. Check that the item they hand you is the one you inspected — the classic swap happens while you're counting money or looking at your phone.
4. Never share a PIN or an OTP
Your mobile money PIN, a one-time code by SMS, your bank details, your Ghana Card. No legitimate buyer or seller ever needs any of these. Anyone who asks is trying to rob you, without exception. A "buyer" who says they need your OTP to send you money is describing something that does not exist.
If you're buying
- A price far below market is a warning, not a bargain. Scammers price to make you act fast before you think. Ask yourself why someone would sell at half price to a stranger.
- Be suspicious of urgency. "I'm travelling tomorrow", "someone else is coming at 4pm", "send the deposit now and I'll hold it". Manufactured pressure is the scammer's main tool. A real seller will wait an hour for a serious buyer.
- Don't accept a seller who won't meet. If they're always sending a "brother" or "driver", or want to courier it after payment, walk away.
- Reverse-image search the photos. If the same picture appears on ten other listings or a shop website, the item isn't theirs.
- Never use Western Union, MoneyGram, or a money transfer service for someone you've just met. Those are built for sending money to people you trust, and once it's collected it's gone.
- Ask for the item's history. A real owner can tell you where they bought it, when, and why they're selling. A scammer gets vague fast.
- Count and check cash before handing it over, and don't display a large amount of money in the open.
If you're selling
Sellers get defrauded too, and the scams are different. Watch for these.
The fake payment SMS. This is the most common seller scam in Ghana. A buyer collects the item and shows you a text message or screenshot that looks exactly like a mobile money credit alert. It's fake — either a spoofed sender or a doctored screenshot.
Never rely on an SMS or a screenshot. Check your actual balance yourself, using your own phone and your own USSD code or app, before you release anything. If the money isn't in your balance, it doesn't exist.
- The overpayment scam. A buyer "accidentally" sends more than the price and asks you to refund the difference. The original payment is fake or later reversed; your refund is real. Never refund an overpayment — reverse the whole thing, or ask them to.
- The reversal. Someone pays, takes the item, then reports the transaction as unauthorised. Keep the transaction ID and the buyer's number.
- The "agent" who wants your OTP. Anyone claiming they need a code from your phone to complete a payment is taking over your mobile money wallet. Hang up.
- Don't let strangers into your home to view an item. Meet outside where possible. If they must come — for furniture, say — have someone else there.
- The test-drive theft. Never let someone test-drive your vehicle alone, and never hand over keys or documents before payment clears.
- Blur or crop anything identifying in your photos — house numbers, gates, number plates, documents on the table behind the item.
Remember your phone number is public on your live ad. Expect calls from time-wasters and, occasionally, from people trying it on. Use Block seller on anyone you don't want to deal with, and delete or mark your ad sold as soon as the item's gone.
Buying a vehicle
- Take a mechanic with you. Not the seller's mechanic. Yours. The cost is trivial against what you're about to spend, and a good one will find in ten minutes what you'd discover in three months.
- Test drive it properly — cold start, at speed, over a bump, and in traffic. Not just around the block.
- Check the documents against the vehicle. Chassis number and engine number on the papers must match the ones on the car. Confirm the registration with the DVLA before you pay, not after.
- Confirm the seller is the registered owner. If they're selling "for my brother who is abroad", stop.
- Check for outstanding finance or an unresolved accident history.
- Pay at the point of transfer, with the documents in your hand. Not before.
Renting or buying property
- Never pay an "inspection fee" to view a place. This is a scam that costs Ghanaians money every single day. Legitimate landlords and agents don't charge you to look.
- Go with someone, and view during the day.
- Go back a second time, unannounced. Talk to the security man, the neighbours, the shop on the corner. Ask who owns it, whether it's actually for rent, and whether anyone's living there. The most common property fraud is someone renting out a place they have no connection to.
- Verify the title before any land purchase — do a search at the Lands Commission, and use a lawyer. Multiple sales of the same plot is a well-known problem.
- Meet the actual landlord, not just an "agent". Ask for ID and check it against the documents.
- Don't pay rent in advance for a place you can't move into immediately. If they can't hand you keys, don't hand them money.
- Get a written tenancy agreement and a receipt for every cedi.
Buying a phone or laptop
- Check the IMEI. Dial *#06# on the phone to display it, and confirm it matches the box and the settings screen. If it doesn't match, walk away.
- Make sure it's not locked to an account. Ask the seller to sign out of their Apple ID or Google account in front of you, then factory reset it while you watch. A phone still linked to someone else's account is a brick — and this is how stolen phones are offloaded.
- Test everything: both cameras, the speaker, the microphone, charging, Wi-Fi, every button, the fingerprint sensor, and both SIM slots. Put your own SIM in and make a call.
- Check battery health in settings before you agree a price.
- Ask for the receipt. No receipt on an expensive recent phone deserves a hard question.
- Beware "UK used" that's actually stolen. A very cheap flagship from someone who won't meet in daylight is exactly what it looks like. Buying stolen goods is an offence — and the phone will be blocked.
Buying electronics and appliances
- Plug it in and run it before you pay. A fridge needs longer than a minute to show it cools; a TV needs a source connected, not just a standby light.
- Ask why they're selling. "Moving abroad" is plausible. Vagueness isn't.
- Check for counterfeits — inspect the branding, the plug, and the build quality. If the box looks slightly wrong, it is.
- Confirm the warranty is transferable if it's part of why you're buying.
- Take the accessories — remote, cable, charger, manual — at the same meeting, not "I'll send it later".
People pretending to be us
QuickSell GH will never ask you for money
We don't charge to post a free ad. We don't hold your money. We don't run an escrow, a delivery service, or a "buyer protection" scheme. We don't operate a payment system of any kind.
So if anyone tells you to pay QuickSell GH to release an item, to verify your account, to claim a prize, or to unlock funds — it is a scam. Report it and block them.
We will also never ask you for your password, your PIN, an OTP, or a photograph of your Ghana Card. We never ask for ID documents at all.
If something goes wrong
- Report the listing in the app. Open the ad, tap Report, pick the reason. This reaches our moderators fastest, and it's how we find repeat offenders.
- Block the seller so you don't see them again.
- Keep your evidence — screenshots of the ad, the messages, the number, any transaction ID. Do this before anything gets deleted.
- If you've lost money, report it to the Ghana Police Service. A crime committed through an app is still a crime, and we cannot investigate or recover money for you.
- If mobile money is involved, contact your provider immediately. Speed matters — the sooner you call, the better the odds.
- Email us at stunnerconsult@gmail.com if you need to tell us something the report form doesn't cover.
Being honest about our limits: we can remove a listing and suspend an account, and we do both quickly. We cannot recover your money, reverse a payment, or force anyone to do anything — we're never part of the transaction and never hold the funds. That's exactly why the four rules at the top matter more than anything else on this page.