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OLX sets new security standard 

OLX has blocked nearly 200 000 scammers from its site, writes COLETTE VAN MONTFORT, User Centricity Manager for OLX South Africa.

OLX’s investment in tech innovation and skilled recruits have set a new standard in user safety.

We have raised the bar last year in the level of user support we provide to our community by introducing a fraud hotline and a dedicated fraud team – both are the first of their kind in South Africa. Those efforts have paid off. Since June, the fraud team has blocked nearly 200 000 scammers from our site, and we still reached the highest number of unique ads in the past two years in the last quarter.

Aside from building a skilful team of fraud specialists, OLX has invested heavily in the platform’s security.

Globally, we noticed that the number of chats far exceeded the number of calls in OLX. The feedback we received is that chats are non-intrusive and familiar while keeping personal information private. So, we wanted to increase the safety within chat by introducing contextual safety tips that follow current scam trends. For example, if a user is asked to pay for an item via PayPal before seeing it, a warning will be sent to the user with a safety tip. Additionally, an automatic alert is sent to users when they are chatting with someone who has been detected as suspicious.

Because OLX sees the value of building a loyal community of users and employees, they rallied their users (with the online campaign #StaySharp) and the local team (from business development manager to intern) to help in the fight against scamming that has decreased fraud incidents in the past 6 months by 44% whilst other global classified players have become a breeding ground for scammers as reported by NBC2 Investigators recently.

The OLX team encourage anyone who comes across any fraudulent activity on the app or website to call the fraud hotline: 021 406 3900 Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm. The fraud specialists are always happy to help.

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