Shopping on social media is increasingly becoming popular. Instagram and Twitter are the new hotspots overtaking e-commerce platforms like Jumia and Konga. From beaut products to thrift clothing, furniture, hangout experiences and much more, you will find vendors on social media.

However, last year alone, identified scam cases tracked on Instagram by Nigerian buyers totalled N273,235,485. Unsatisfied transactions “what I ordered vs what I got” amounted to N84,399,140.

While a lot of Instagram vendors are honest and trustworthy, a few dishonest people have decided to take advantage of people’s trust and illicit fraudulent transactions. Here are 5 tips to avoid being scammed by Instagram vendors.

1.Check how old the account is
Scroll to the first post and check the date it was posted. Most scammers don’t have the patience to build an account over a long period of time for the purpose of scamming. The drawback to this is that legit businesses who are just starting out may be suspected too. Check other tips below to confirm.

2. Check comments on posts.
A major red flag is seeing several posts without any enquiry comment. This means a lack of activity. An active vendor will have interaction with potential buyers in the comment section. The comments also confirm activity. They could be questions about delayed deliveries, asking for the price or general negotiations. Illicit vendors delete comments from people they've scammed before.

3. Check for customer reviews.
Legitimate vendors will post reviews from previous customers. If you don’t see any reviews then you should be careful. fake vendors also create reviews so be careful. If anything seems off, don’t buy from them.


4. Reachout to followers.
Take out some time to message some followers of the account to ask if they've done business with the vendor. This may not be ideal because most accounts have followers who haven’t bought from them yet. But you may get some info when you get responses from these followers.

5. Use an escrow service.
Escrow services let you pay for the product but hold your funds until you’re received your order. Your money will be refunded if you don’t receive your order. Escrow services give the vendor the confidence that you’ve made the payment but it also protects you from scams as the customer. A reliable escrow service is SafeMono.com. They release funds to the vendor 12 hours after your order has been fulfilled or refund you if you didn’t get your order.

Attached is a data of scam from Instagram transactions.