Whenever I remember the series of incidents where I have fallen for scammers and had my money taken away from me out of ignorance and carelessness, all I do is laugh and say to myself, "what a stubborn girl I have been". Being scammed of my money, even when I had learned my lesson, still won't stop me from jumping into another scam trap all in the name of looking for free money where they'd promise to double my capital. Bringing 2,000 naira and collecting 4,000 naira has been the order of the scamming adventure and many of us do not think of stopping as we want to keep trying our luck and taking the risk.
There are a lot of experiences with my ill-luck with scammers and at the end of the day, you will see my coconut head being rolled into another opportunity. Though I was able to gain a small amount of money which would serve as my capital, my greediness would still make me put back the money, both the capital and profit I had made, then everything would be gone.
There was this first scam experience that taught me a big lesson and I regretted my action that day, even though I still jumped into other ones after that experience, you see, I had that stubbornness in me and that alone made me stronger because even if I am scammed again, it won't pain me because I have been used to feel how painful it is for my money to be carried away.
It was on this faithful day when I was going to the university in the year 2019, January was the month. I was given an admission in December of the year before and it made me joyous to finally be leaving home and enjoying my freedom again. Dad saw me off to the car park where he waited for the car to move and made sure his daughter left in his presence and not that I would go another route, hehe, don't mind me, I was not that kind of girl. While still waiting in the car for other passengers to fill up, I got a direct message on Instagram where this guy was explaining a new kind of investment where I would get to double my capital. The way he explained it, I believed him immediately and that was my first scam experience — was naive to know which is true or not.
I even chatted with my elder sister trying to convince her to join too, something I hadn't tasted to see how sweet it was. My sister warned me not to fall for the trap because she had known this stuff more than me who was just getting into the world of scammers but couldn't recognise one to be real or fake.
My sister had just sent my acceptance and school fees to me with some pocket money. I was interested in this business, so, I calculated the money on me and discovered I could spare some amount for it. I agreed to the business and decided to do the lowest amount which was 5,000 naira to get 10,000 naira within minutes of the transaction. I tried sending the money in the car but there was no network. I promised the guy that once I got to school, would reach him back to begin the process. He was also waiting for me and would constantly keep sending me messages so I wouldn't change my mind. Poor me, if I had known the future, I could have envisaged it was a scam and that I should run away.
Lo and behold, I got to school and we began the transaction. I joined the other students in one of the lecture halls for the orientation program as it was the same day I got to school. While sitting at the back so that lecturers wouldn't notice my distraction from the programme, we began. I sent the first 5k to him, and a few minutes later, he came with the excuse that the system no longer accepts the amount and that I should send another 5k to make it 10,000 naira so I would get 20,000 naira in return. I did and waited for him to reply with, "send your account details".
Some minutes later, he came with another excuse and it was as if I was being charmed and didn't know when I sent him the third 5k. After I sent it, my eyes got cleared as if the charm had been erased from my system. I waited and waited for this guy's reply but nothing was happening. Ah, I am done for, that was the statement that came out of my mouth silently. I realized I had removed from my school fees. A fresher for that matter, how do I explain myself to my sister who helped me raise the school fees? She would blame me and say, "didn't I warn you not to do it?"
My heart was beating faster, had an adrenaline rush, I got nervous and my system was disorganised. I couldn't focus on what they were saying at the program and all I wanted at that time was for the orientation program to end while I had more time to see what was going on. As we finished and were going home, I kept trying this guy's number with which he called me, it was ringing repeatedly but wasn't picking up. After what seemed like the hundredth time of calling, he picked up and rained abusive words on me. That was when I knew Princess had been scammed. I couldn't cry on the road as a lot of students were passing by.
I got so frustrated that I transferred the aggression to the bike man who was to take me to the place I was staying. I kept thinking and wishing the whole scenario would reverse so I could retrace my step and tell the man I wasn't interested but the deed had been done and there was nothing like reversal. I got annoyed at myself and blamed my actions.
When I got home, the lady I squatted with asked me what was wrong but it was something I couldn't explain so as not to be called a fool for falling into such a trap. I laid down in bed and cried silently while regretting, I kept thinking of how to get my school fees completed so I could pay on time. The next day, I got a call from one of my colleagues from the school where I worked as a teacher and they told me that our boss had paid our lesson dues and that my share would be sent to me immediately. I was happy and replaced the lost money with the lesson salary and that was how I was saved and paid my school fees on time.
Though this lesson taught me not to believe anything that says, "bring this amount and it gets doubled", I stopped for a while but I still found myself taking the risk over and over again until in the year 2021, I stopped completely and till today, I had rather invest my money in crypto than anything Ponzi scheme.
