7 online scams in Cameroon - and how escrow stops each one

Nearly every scam reported to us has the same shape. Someone is asked to move first - send the money, ship the phone, deliver the design - and the other side simply does not follow through. The details change with the season; the structure never does. Here are the seven we see most often in Cameroon, and exactly where escrow breaks each one.

1\. The advance-fee seller

A listing appears at a price slightly below market. The seller is friendly, replies fast, and has good photos. They ask for a deposit "to reserve it". Once the deposit lands, the story changes: a customs fee, a transport fee, a problem with the courier. Every new fee is small enough to seem reasonable compared to what you have already paid. Then the number goes silent.

Where escrow stops it: there is no deposit. The full price sits in escrow, the seller can see it, and they only get paid when the item is in your hands. A seller who refuses escrow on a "reserved" item has told you everything you need to know.

2\. The fake delivery agent

You agree a deal with a seller. A third number joins the chat - "the delivery agent" - and asks you to pay a delivery or insurance fee before the parcel can be released. The agent and the seller are the same person, or partners. There was never a parcel.

Where escrow stops it: nobody outside the deal can ask you for money. Delivery cost is agreed inside the deal up front, and the seller collects it from escrow on release, not from you in a side chat. We wrote a full breakdown in The fake delivery agent is back - what to watch for.

3\. The half-paying client

A freelancer gets a brief, agrees a price, and asks for 50% up front. The client pays it. The work is delivered. The second 50% never arrives - the client stops answering, or finds a small flaw and uses it to renegotiate the balance down to nothing.

Where escrow stops it: the full amount, or the full milestone, is funded before work starts. The freelancer knows the money exists. The client cannot withhold it; they can only dispute it, and a dispute is decided on evidence against the agreed brief.

4\. The reversed MoMo payment

A buyer pays by mobile money, collects the goods, and then reports the transaction as a mistake to get it reversed - or sends a fake "payment received" screenshot and pressures the seller to hand over the item on the spot.

Where escrow stops it: the seller never relies on a screenshot. Bizik confirms the money is in escrow before showing the deal as funded, and once it is there the buyer cannot reverse it. Release happens on the buyer's confirmation or when the inspection window closes.

5\. The switched item

You inspect a phone, agree to buy it, pay, and the seller hands you a box. The phone in the box is a different, cheaper model - or the "new" laptop has a swapped battery and a cracked board under a clean lid.

Where escrow stops it: the inspection window. You have an agreed number of days to check what you received against the listing before the money is released. If it does not match, you open a dispute with photos, and the money stays frozen.

6\. The rental deposit that vanishes

A room or apartment is advertised. The "landlord" cannot show it today but will hold it for you if you pay a deposit. The apartment belongs to someone else, or does not exist.

Where escrow stops it: the deposit is funded to escrow with a condition - keys handed over, or a viewing completed - and only released when you confirm it. A real landlord loses nothing by agreeing to this. A fake one cannot agree to it.

7\. The diaspora "trusted cousin"

Someone abroad sends money home to pay a builder, a mechanic or a supplier through a relative. The relative spends it, or the builder is paid in full up front and stops turning up. The person abroad has no way to verify what happened.

Where escrow stops it: the sender funds the deal directly from abroad. The builder or supplier is the counterparty, not the cousin. Money is released in milestones as photos of finished work are approved, from anywhere in the world.

The pattern

Every one of these depends on one person moving first while the other holds all the power. Escrow removes that moment. Nobody moves first, because the money is with a neutral party that follows the rules both sides agreed to. If someone you are dealing with refuses to use it, that refusal is the most useful information you will get.

See how a Bizik deal works step by step, or read our plain-language guide to what escrow actually is.