Thirty-five-old Madam Gladys, a victim of internet scammers, recently recounted her ordeal in an emotion-laden tone to Blueprint Weekend’s ELEOJO IDACHABA, who writes on the efforts being made by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to check the menace.
Madam Gladys, as she simply prefers to be known for security reasons, operates one of the popular gardens and resorts in Jabi district of Abuja. She is presently not a happy person not because she lost any relation or friend, but because on Saturday, April 20, 2019, she lost a whopping sum of N480, 000 to scammers she first met on Facebook in what appeared to her like a dream. Blueprint Weekend gathered that the unsuspecting Gladys said all the monies in her Zenith Bank account were transferred within a night unknown to her.
In a lamentation-laden tone, she told this reporter that: “I am devastated. I didn’t know that what I hear about internet scammers is true until it happened to me. Not too long ago, I saw this particular information on Facebook on ways of securing a loan for which I applied because my plan is to travel out of Nigeria. I saw this thing since March and applied. I had even forgotten it until sometime in April when I got a call from an unregistered number reminding me about my loan request. Because I really needed money to process my travel documents and business, I was glad.”
Asked to know if she initially discussed the matter with anyone before she decided to apply for the loan, she said, “I didn’t tell anyone except one of my girls because I did not want anything that can block my chance of travelling out of the country by August. I have been saving this money since last year when I was told about travelling to China to buy goods; so, because I like the idea of buying and selling, I wanted to do it quick and return. I didn’t know I was dealing with thieves.”
According to her, when she got the call about the loan, the voice from the other end was that of a lady for whom she was happy that at least, she was speaking with a fellow woman.
“I narrated the whole of my plans to her for which she empathised with me. At a point, she paused and gave the phone to a man whom she said was her immediate boss. The said boss asked me a few questions as to whether or not I had ever secured a loan before and if I would be faithful to pay the interest if eventually I secured another one. He asked me if I had any collateral for the loan, and I told him that my garden is my collateral. He requested for the full address of the place and how much I make a day which I obliged him. After giving all the information, he returned the phone to the lady who went further to ask if they could send their representative in Abuja to inspect the place since their main office is in Lagos. I agreed. At that point, she asked me if I had a functional email address. I answered in the affirmative. A message was actually sent to the email that day asking for details of my business plan along with the previous loans I had collected and how I repaid them. The whole process appeared clean to me as I thought this was the turning point I had been looking for.
At last, the lady told me that I had passed the first level, saying a call would be made to me later in order to move to the next level. I thought I was really excited as I waited for the call with eagerness. Exactly two days later, I received a call from a male voice who introduced himself as representing an agency that gives loans. He said I should check my email for some messages which I should respond to within 24 hours before the team from Abuja would inspect the garden. In that email, I was asked how much I wanted for which I wrote a million naira. There were other inquiries like how I want to receive the money and modalities for repayment. All these appeared true to be suspected. Do you know that the following day, two men and a lady actually came to the garden in the afternoon without notice?”
Continuing, she said, “Their method was so clean that I really thought they were genuine. First, they came in around 2pm and one of my girls attended to them because she thought they were genuine customers. They rather told her to wait. After a few minutes, they asked her to call the owner of the place for them. That was when she came and told me. At that point, something told me they could be the team from Abuja that I was expecting. When I came to them, a man who appeared to be their leader told me to sit down. Before now, they were just looking around without saying a word. When I sat, he told me that they were sent to inspect the place to see if my garden could qualify me for the loan I applied for. That was when I warmly greeted them and even pleaded with them not to raise their voices because it was a deal I wanted to do quietly. To catch me unawares, he said for over 20 minutes they entered the garden, no customer had shown up and so asked how I would be able to repay the money if I did not have customers who would patronise the garden. I explained that customers usually throng the place mostly in the evenings. Gladly, the only lady among them came to my aid to justify my claim. It was at that point that they said they would be leaving, but that was after they gave me a form to fill. All these were on a Friday afternoon. The form contains request for my bank account number, my next of kin, full name and a few other information. On the form was TTS credit and thrift. That was all. They told me to expect a message from them by Monday.
Withdrawals
Unknown to me, they began to transfer money from my account Friday night, but I did not know until Saturday morning because I left the garden shortly before mid-night on Friday and went straight home, switched off my phone to sleep. By the time I woke up and switched on my phone Saturday morning by 10 in preparation to return to the garden, several text messages appeared. When I saw it at first, I thought they had credited my account only for me to see several withdrawals. I could not believe it initially. When the withdrawal alert became real, I screamed. That was what attracted my neighbour. I thought the deal was a genuine one. I ran to my bank in Gwarimpa branch, but nobody was around to help me until the sum of N480, 000 was withdrawn from the account leaving me with less than N20, 000.”
Unrealistic as it might be, that was the story of Gladys as she narrated to Blueprint Weekend. Asked if she reported the matter to the police or the Economic and Financial Crimes (EFCC), she said she was advised not to bother reporting the matter because there was nothing the police could do and that if she informed the EFCC, she might be their victim for attempting to transact business with individuals she had no knowledge about.
“My brother, I am completely devastated as I was advised not to disclose my complete identity, she told Blueprint Weekend.
This is not the first time a similar incident would occur. Their mode of operation may differ, but in all, they leave their victims helpless. They appear as internet fraudsters, yahoo boys, Facebook scammers, one-chance and all forms of criminality.
EFCC reacts
In reacting to all of these, the Abuja Office head of the commission’s Advance Fee Fraud unit, otherwise known as 419, Sini Umar, admitted that the commission is aware of the menace posed by the persons involved in fraudulent activities, but that the onslaught on internet fraudsters and yahoo boys will not cease until it is totally eliminated. He said before now, the commission’s attention was focused on politically-exposed persons which was why the commission lessened its searchlight on the yahoo boys.
“We are shifting our focus on them. Often times, what is being proposed by these boys to get their victims are things that will entice them and easily fall into, especially if they are elements of greed attached to it. We, however, do not wish to accuse anyone of greed as we are being paid to fight for victims of such crimes, but usually there are elements of greed and desperation on the part of the victims.”
According to Emeka Ibemere in EFCC Alert, a monthly publication of the commission, “Internet crime started with Webfree style where about 99% of yahoo boys started their careers through this fraud. For instance, with the private account of any trendy dating website, they fill in their profile, find an attractive photo and await somebody to ‘fall in love with them.’ Once cornered, the victim soon begins to send hard currencies. From these emotional gambits, desperate fraudsters take up the gimmicks a few notches up. Investigations have shown that the trend now is called yahoo plus where the fraudster employs fetish means to even hypnotise their victims before moving for the kill.”
In recent times, the commission had arrested some individuals involved in wiring monies illegally from people’s accounts. For instance, the Abuja Zonal Office of the commission on Thursday, April 25, 2019, arrested Ajiero Onyeka, Clement Peter, Mustapha Zubiri and Agbo Austine Taylor for allegedly attempting to carry out a fraudulent bank wire transfer to the tune of $200,000.
Blueprint Weekend learnt that a team of EFCC operatives swooped on the suspects as they were about to transfer the said amount from the account of an unsuspecting foreigner into a domiciliary account in Nigeria.
The commission, it was further gathered, was tipped off when the suspects were sourcing for domiciliary account number which they will use to receive the money.
Bank wire transfer fraudsters have this practice of using other people’s domiciliary account to receive fraudulent money with the promise of giving the account holder a commission from the money.
Be it internet scam, Facebook fraud or yahoo yahoo, the trend is the same. Madam Gladys said she has learnt her lessons although in a hard way, but said her hope of travelling out of the country is what she will never wish away considering the fact that the government appears to be nothing to handle the numerous problems bedevilling the country.
