Being scammed is not always a good story to tell but the good thing is that we should always learn from our mistakes and be wiser. Some people are bent on hurting each other by all means in the quest to get quick money without working for it. To them, they are smart and can always find smart tricks of snatching away our hard-earned money without thank you.
Honestly, I have been contemplating if I should share my scam experience with you all because I feel so ashamed talking about it. I should have been wiser than the scammer but no, I fall into his trap. Ohh! My poor money was gone😥
HOW I WAS SCAMMED
I have a very good friend who was my childhood friend though she is much older than me we relate so closely. I got married before her and left from the village to the city in Lagos State. The lady is a very hard-working lady, she does different kinds of business just to earn and be financially independent .it's been 8 years since I got married and up till date, she is yet to marry. She has never begged me for any favor and so, this was the origin of my victim to the scammer.
Being good friends, we call each from time to time and chat on Facebook messenger. On one of those days, I didn't know her Facebook account was already hacked and so the scammer initiated a chat, as usual, I thought she was my friend chatting not knowing I was responding to the scammer. How the scammer got to know the type of all business my friend does still bewilder me. He started by asking about my children and I answered that they are fine but one was down with malaria. The scammer went further to tell me how she went to the market to sell her fried cashew nuts and stumbled upon a big quantity of corn at affordable rate but she didn't have the complete money to purchase it. She told me that she forgot her cash in the house while rushing to go make her cashew sales in the market. She went further to say that she is with the corn seller and that I should help her transfer #20,000 ($35) to the seller so that once she returns home, she will go to the P.O.S stand and transfer the money back the latest before 12noon that same day. She said I should drop my account number for an easy refund once she reaches home🤔
I have a soft heart and find it difficult sometimes to say no especially when I put my shoe on the person's leg by imagination. First, the scammer described exactly all the business my friend does, so it looks so real, secondly, my friend doesn't have a transfer app I was the one that dragged her to using an Android phone and social media instead of living in the dark. Thirdly, that was the first thing she has requested from me since I got married. You see this particular scammer, he must have been trained!!!
Hmmm, I didn't have up to 20k in my naira bank account that day. I had only 12k and I told her. So I made her to know thati can only give her 10k so she can buy any quantity her hands reach. She was happy and sent me the corn seller's account number. I quickly made the transfer and she couldn't stop thanking me and praying for God to bless me for coming through for her.
Not up to 30mins I sent that money, I saw another chat, requesting that I send her the remaining 2k left in my bank account. What!!! I made it clear to her that my son was sick and I am on my way to the pharmacy to get a malaria drug for him with the 2k. She still insisted that I send it that before an hour, she must have gotten home to refund it so I can buy the drugs..dat statement was so strange to come from my friend I know. At this point, I suspected foul play. I mean how could my good friend be more conscious of her business than the health of my son which I told her. I was so much annoyed and that was when I paused that Facebook messenger chat and decided to call her on the phone to be sure she meant what she typed.
I got a hot shock when she told me over the phone that she wasn't the one chatting with me all along and that her Facebook account was hacked! Shuuuuu!!! It was a scammer all those whiles. I remember threatening the scammer before he blocked me🤩. I was like had it been I had up to 20k that day...I would have lost up to that in the name of being kind without proper verification. NKEM, YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN WISER THAN THIS!!! I couldn't stop blaming myself for not calling my friend on the phone first before initiating that transaction.
LESSON LEARNT !!!
I am now wiser and more alert since that day. Many of them have been coming after the first encounter but then, they have been failing, I now know their tricks.
Secondly, I dare not help anyone through an online conversation without first hearing the person's voice and it depends anyways.
I jump and pass every fishy link, don't dash me MB, or money or 300hive, I don't want. Verification of any deal is my watchword. You too can be wiser than this scammers.
Thanks for reading !!
This is my entry to the @hivelearners community contest titled SCAMMER ENCOUNTER.