Before 2020, when I heard the word "scam," I only thought of Yahoo Yahoo. But during the COVID-19 lockdown, the world went online, and online scams increased.
Before the lockdown, I used to buy data from vendors. I would simply send money, they would ask for my number, and they would transfer the data directly to my account.
Although the option of buying data from your network provider was there, the vendors' data was actually cheaper.
One fateful day during the lockdown, I was scrolling through the internet when I saw an advert. I can't remember if it was on a WhatsApp status or a Facebook ad, but I saw the data bundles this guy was selling, and they looked so appealing.
I quickly copied the number and chatted with him. I told him I wanted to buy data, and he confirmed it was available. As usual, I had to send the money first. If I had known better, I would have tried with a smaller amount first, but I trusted him and sent the money.
As soon as I sent the money for the data, which was about two thousand Nigerian naira, the guy stopped responding. I tried calling to find out if it was a network issue, but as soon as he heard my voice, he ended the call.
I tried several times to reach him with other numbers, but all to no avail. One time, I called him with an unknown number and rained curses on him, and he quickly ended the call.
After many failed attempts to reach him, I gave up on the money. I got neither the data nor a refund. For a long time afterwards, I never bought anything online because I was scared of losing money again.
After a while, I saw people getting things online without issues, so I started buying from online vendors too. However, I now make sure to verify their authenticity first and gradually I started getting stuffs online.
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