Have you ever encountered a situation that made you question your literacy and intelligence? You wonder how you were outsmarted despite been educated and knowledgeable. Well I guess falling victim to certain schemes sometimes is just unfortunate. I was a victim of scammers and till date I still haven't forgotten that particular experience because of how painful it was for me, it was a thursday morning as the sun was rising to illuminate the sky ushering us into another new day, still fast asleep and feeling reluctant to get off the bed, I was suddenly jolted awake by a phone call
I was angry that someone was calling me that early in the morning but still went ahead to pick the call with sleepy eyes and a man's voice came through and he called my name to confirm if he was speaking to the right person and I answered him saying yes with a sleepy eyes. After confirming he went ahead and introduced himself and said he was my account officer assigned to monitor my account and other accounts from the bank and that there was a general maintenance ongoing and they need verification to confirm that everything is going well.
He asked me to confirm my name, so I got abit suspicious and asked him why again but he said he just wanted to be sure since it's the mandated procedure, so I confirmed the name and his next question was about my date of birth but before I should answer, he told me exactly the date and that let me to drop my guard abit thinking that he is telling the truth about being an account officer since he knows and can access my date of birth. He went ahead to tell me my address, next of kin and contact number and since I was still abit sleepy I didn't argue much or question him much but rather I kept affirming and confirming things for him.
I think he noticed that I was carried away and believed what he was saying without asking much questions then he said "is your account number not so and so(he called out my account number correctly) then I said yes, not knowing that the response I gave was the first crucial answer of trapping myself. He further went ahead and ask me if my ATM card was close by and I said no but it's not too far away, then he said I should get it and I did as my sleepy eyes were begining to clear, then he told me that I was using a MasterCard with serial number.....( He called out the first 5 digits of the debit card) and as foolish as I was that time and not questioning why he was asking for my ATM card serial number, i joined him and called out the remaining digits.
The next thing was my cvv which he told me to call out for him at the back of my ATM card and I also did and he said since every account is undergoing maintenance at that moment, every password will be reset again and a new password will be sent to individuals for confirming and if I see any SMS of password reset I should sent it for him, then he ended the call. Not long after the call ended I saw an SMS for password reset and before I send it he called back and I told him the new password which he confirmed and said that I will receive some messages I shouldn't worry and then just like that the call ended.
Immediately the call dropped, as if a cold water of ice was poured on my head down to my body, I suddenly felt a chill in my body as I came back to my senses and I asked myself "what have I just done", "what just happened", "what messages will I see", and i was like "hope it's not what i think it is" even though I already knew at that moment that I have messed up, i was still trying to hold onto some hope but immediately those though of hope crossed my mind, my phone vibrated displaying messages of debit alert transactions and immediately my heart sank in panic, pain and angel because a total of 79,000 thousand naira was withdrawn from my account.
The money withdrawn was my school fees and pocket money that was sent to me by dad because I was to resume my 2nd year in school few days from the day of the incident, so I panicked alot because I know how my dad will react and he surely did, but he later sent me the school fees after like 3 months after resumption as a punishment and I did not get any allowance for 2 months also because he concluded that despite the fact the I was educated I still let something like that to happen to me.
I hated myself for that situation and that day, but I hated the scammer more because of the dilemma that he put me into and since then whenever someone ask me about my account number or card details I immediately react knowing fully well that they are fraudsters .
Thank you for your time
