I feel so sad reading this.
Obinna, a 30-year-old Nigerian man started an agricultural commodity export business 2 years ago.
His business model is simple:
When he gets a contract to supply agricultural products like sesame seed, maize, rice, corns and millet, this is the process.
The person/company that wants the product from his company will send an international letter of credit through their bank to his local bank in Nigeria, once this is done and confirmed, it shows the buyers willingness to proceed with the transaction.
With this confirmation in his pocket , Obinna raises money from friends and family with the assurance given by the LC with his local bank, travel to the north with his team, source for the agricultural item that the client abroad is requesting for, buy, ship it to Lagos, take it to Apapa and from there it will be shipped to the client abroad.
Once the client abroad receives the shipment from Obinna, the client's bank will wire the full money of the shipment to Obinna's bank and that is the end of the transaction.
Obinna has done this couple of times and the deals were all successful not until the last deal that he did last year.
Last year October, a mail was forwarded to Obinna from a contact who works with Nigerian export promotion council.
The mail is from a purported commodity company based in Dubai.
They needed sesame seeds consignment worth $150,000 from Obinna's company.
Actually, the commodity company based in Dubai wrote to the Nigerian export promotion council, asking for a commodity business in Nigeria that can supply sesame seeds in large quantities.
Obinna's contact at the council recommended his company and then forwarded the mail to him to act on it.
On receiving the mail from the Nigerian export council, communication was opened between Obinna(the seller) and the guys in Dubai(who are the buyers)
After many days of back and forth between the two parties, a Letter of credit was dispatched by the buyers' bank in Italy to another bank In New Zealand that now forwarded the LC to Access bank in Nigeria who now sent it to Obinna's bank FCMB.
These layers of channels should have been the first red flag but since the contact came from the Nigerian export commission, a trusted agency that had given him business in the past which were all successful, his mind did not avert to that.
Immediately Obinna's bank received the LC from Access bank, Obinna was informed too.
As usual, he raised the money needed for the project from friends, family and colleagues.
With the right amount raised, Obinna left with his team to Katsina where the sesame seeds were sourced, then shipped to Lagos for the final delivery to Dubai.
The goods left Nigeria last year November and arrived in Dubai in January of this year.
Immediately the buyer acknowledged that he had received the consignment, Obinna expected the buyers' bank to credit him but it never happened rather stories that touch the heart entered.
When the money was not forthcoming and the creditors in Nigeria were on his neck to pay back the money he borrowed from them to finance the project, Obinna wrote to the buyer's bank in Italy to demand an explanation why he has not seen his $150,000
The bank did not answer him until he wrote to the Central bank of Italy who now copied the bank in question in their response to him.
The Italian bank denied responsibility as they were not the Bank that issued the Letter of Credit.
The letter did not originate from them.
They also showed Obinna that their letterhead was forged and also the address in the letterhead used in the transaction was not theirs as it was strange to them.
The ball moved to New Zealand and upon investigation, it was discovered that the bank which sent the LC from that country to Access bank is no longer in existence.
Because it is no longer in existence, it is now a vehicle of fraud by Yahoo boys to defraud and hoodwink unsuspecting people like Obinna.
The ball now moved to the court of Acess bank that sent the forged LC to Obinna's local bank, their defence is that they did not know they were dealing with scammers.
Obinna local bank FCMB is offering the same defence that they did not know the LC sent was forged.
Out of frustration, Obinna has written to CBN, Nigeria's apex bank supported the two banks position, they also reminded Obinna that the two banks did not owe Obinna duty of care to do a background check to be sure that he was dealing with credible company.
That was his job and not the bank to do, CBN reminded him.
It does not matter to CBN that Access bank and FCMB, conferred on the yahoo boys the legitimacy and the platform the yahoo boys used in scamming Obinna.
The Dubai guys have blocked Obinna from reaching them and as I type this, man is in ruins and his life is in tatters.
$150,000 (75 million naira) disappeared into the thin air like this.
He has not done any other deal this year, how can you carry on with your export commodity business when his company is in debt in millions of naira to creditors who loaned the company money to execute the last deal?
I'm working with Obinna to see if we can explore the legal options to get the banks who legitimized the Yahoo boys to scam Obinna to pay back the money he lost but this sad story highlights more than any other thing, the danger of the cancer called Yahoo Yahoo.
Obinna was just a businessman that wants to do something with his life but Nigerian yahoo boys based in Dubai have ruined his life and ruined his company too.
I'm sure those thieves must have splurged the money they made from Obinna on luxury cars, hot Instagram slag queens and properties.
E no reach pass like this.
Who knows, they might have shared the pictures of their new whip on Instagram and Facebook, just to pepper the rest of us who don’t do yahoo.
Basking in luxury, in the euphoria of another person’s blood.
Please, if you are a yahoo boy and you are reading this, you are a thief.
Yahoo is not a hustle, can never be, you are a glorified thief and a digital robber.
Just like Hushpuppi was caught, I hope you will be arrested soon and use as a scapegoat.
I feel for Obinna, a whole lot.
He is just 30, had his life ahead of him but these scammers have ruined everything for him.
But I know he will bounce back from this setback, he will recover from this misfortune caused by another man's greed.
Just a matter of time.
Me: Last line is just it.