Fool me twice, blame me forever. I think everyone who has ever made an attempt to make a living especially online has experienced a scam in one way or the other. In my opinion, if we want to count the number of people on this blockchain who have been scammed, we won鈥檛 be able to number all.
First of all, I want to send big accolades to the person(s) who brought up this brilliant topic. I think it鈥檚 important that people share their experiences with fraud so that others can read and learn.
My name is Native Boy, I live in Ghana馃嚞馃嚟. Through my hustle on the internet, I鈥檝e encountered quite several fraudulent activities. But today I鈥檒l be writing about a fraudulent mobile money transaction with a customer at my shoe shop.
I was running a small shoe shop that was my brother鈥檚. I had been doing this business for almost six years (since secondary school) but I was not really in charge until I was done with school.
Mobile money is simply the most convenient and smartest way to send and receive funds here in Ghana. A customer can send money from his account to my phone and I鈥檒l receive the credit alert within seconds. Mobile money is everyone鈥檚 favorite in Ghana because it鈥檚 simple, secure, and convenient. You can even send money to a different network.
One unfortunate afternoon came. I was in my shop when a student from a training college near my shop came in to buy a cross sandals. A pair was going for 80 Ghana cedis ($7 approximately). He picked two pairs and bargained to pay 150 instead of 160. I agreed and asked him to send the payment. He picked my number and sent the payment. I received an alert of 150 Ghana cedis immediately, recorded the sale and the transaction was completed.
Later on, after I had closed, I went to give my sales to my brother but before that, I had to check the sales and the money in my account to be sure that everything was set. After cross-checking several times, I realized that I was short of 150 Ghana cedis.
After several calculations, I realized that the money the guy sent was in my mobile money account but not in my wallet. He sent it with a token and the only way I could get the money into my actual wallet was with the token he sent it with. It鈥檚 a way to send money to a nonmobile money user. It was a mobile money transfer that was very new to me. Until that day I had no idea that something of that sort existed. Apparently in 30 days, if the recipient is not able to withdraw the funds with the token the funds will be returned to the sender.
I tried calling the guy immediately to get the token from him. He said he wasn鈥檛 aware that I didn鈥檛 get the token and that he鈥檒l send it to me immediately. I couldn鈥檛 reach his number again after the call ended and the token never came.
I explained to my brother, and he got mad at first but when his pepper later settled, he took his time and gave me some more education and all the mobile money transfers.
That was how I lost 150 ghana cedis (12$ approximately) and learned about a new mobile money transfer.
This is my entry to the contest by 
Thank you for reading. I hope it was worth your time.