How to shop wisely and get value for your money

 There are many people who moan daily on how they were robbed by confidence tricksters. In these woeful tales, the script is always the same. Some hawkers materialise with glittering mobile phones, necklaces, perfumes, designer watches and so on and make irresistible offers to their targeted victims. When the deal is done, the sellers go through the motions of packing their merchandise back in their boxes but they expertly exchange the real things with worthless items in similar packaging.

Less dramatic short-changing occurs in many daily transactions for buyers who are not keen. From the enthusiastic first-time car buyer who "forgets" to ensure that a spare wheel and a jack are part of the deal, to the novice real investor who, in a hurry to make millions of shillings, "bypasses" an official search before buying  property, there are many victims of con jobs in our midst.