Nowadays, scammers - those inhumane cheats who go about defrauding people for a living are on the loose and if one is not careful, he can fall a victim to their swindling especially on the Internet and various social media platforms including our beloved Hive.
This is no new ordeal in our world today but it has progressed in increasing measures following the birth and development of the internet and the online space.
I'd like to share an experience I had with these nefarious individuals.
You don't have to frown, 馃ズ unlike most cases, mine has victory at the end 馃挭馃槈馃グ馃ゲ
It was just about 2 weeks ago when I was busy with something in Facebook. I recently joined a skin care group and was checking out some posts there and seeing how I can be of help to people's skin issues.
I came across a particular post from someone who said that anyone who wanted to advertise his or her products on a WhatsApp Group with a good amount of people should indicate. I click on the post and quite a new rof people responded.
I thought to myself that it was a good idea and indicated my interest. The person replied asking for my phone number just as he did with other people that showed interest.
I replied with my number and the following day, I received a call from someone who introduced himself as the person that made the post to which I replied by sending my phone number, precisely my WhatsApp number though I didn't couldn't recall the person's Facebook username.
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The person - the scammmer said that he was going to add me to the group but before he does that, a code will be sent to my number with which I will give to him and this code will make get me verified to be part of the WhatsApp group.
I didn't sense anything off and when the code arrived, he called me back and I gave it to him without even checking properly the sender of the code which was FACEBOOK not the guy himself.
After giving him the code, he still went on to tell me that I had to pay some certain amount of money before joining the group. That's when it hit me that the guy was a bloody scammer. I purposely delayed him on the call saying that I didn't have the money but he kept pushing till he gave up after I had wasted his Airtime which was my intention but I had already given him the major thing he wanted, the code Facebook sent to me.
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Few hours from then, my best friend came to visit me and she noticed I was online and asked me if I was online, I said no. The scammer hacked my account and changed my password, phone number, email and was sending scam messages to my Facebook friends. He also posted pictures of fake alerts on my Facebook story asking my friend right in my presence if she had seen the story he posted about an investments he made as though I was the one asking her.
I grabbed the phone from her and sent the guy a very serious warning which is another day's story.
Facebook sent a security alert alert my email but it was too late, the deed had been done. That is how I lost access to my 8 years old Facebook account with about 2,000 followers but when Facebook noticed that the guy was misusing the platform and sending a lot of scam messages, they immediately locked the account thereby stopping him from accessing it forever.
This really thought me how to be careful about life, my personal information and the online space. A lot of people have lost their lives, loved ones, money and properties to scammers with dead consciences 馃挃 and I was not going to let myself be in that number. Never again.
Till we meet again....
This is my response to the @Hive-Learners prompt which you can feel free to participate here
