Scams are like a tsunami in Fiji, we need urgency 2 years after eBay scam

News heads are calling for urgent and coordinated action in tackling scams in Fiji as it has been 2 years since the eBay scam, and delays in response continues to leave vulnerable Fijians exposed to financial losses and exploitation.

While speaking at a media session during the National Scams Awareness Week workshop organised by the Consumer Council of Fiji, fijivillage News Director, Vijay Narayan says scams are the new tsunami that has taken over the country.

He says the 2023 eBay scam was called out by the Consumer Council of Fiji in a very urgent way, but unfortunately, it took some time for the authorities to act.

He adds that people had a wait-and-see game going on as well, and one issue was that no complaint was filed.

Narayan says he always has an issue with some of the authorities when they say they are waiting for a complaint to be filed.

Narayan questions whether we were waiting for the pyramid scheme to crash and asks how many more thousands would have been affected.

He says we are into October 2025, and some of the relevant laws are still under review.

He says he is quite pleased that the Deputy Prime Minister, Manoa Kamikamica announced that there will be a legislation, but he believes all stakeholders need to ask themselves the question on how long we have to wait because the clock is ticking and there are many vulnerable people who have been taken advantage of.

Narayan also says those involved in campaigns cannot just choose a particular month to focus on a particular awareness and not carry them out in other months.

He stresses the importance of consistency, and messaging in the language that people understand.

Fiji Sun Acting Publisher, Rosi Doviverata shared her insights into one of the biggest scam stories that the media uncovered; the infamous eBay shop scam of 2023.

She says what made the eBay scam unique was that it had shops set up in Lautoka, Nadi, and in Labasa.

She adds that it wasn’t just a digital scam, as people were invited to physical shops, and what made it difficult to convince people that it was a scam was the fact that some Fijians actually received what they were promised.

Doviverata also revealed that journalists who reported on the matter became targets of those involved in the scheme.