Source: unsplash.com
The world has evolved to a point where it is safe to say that goods and services are traded online successfully, even recruiters come online to scout for workers.
Having established that, let’s dive straight into what happened to my 3k.
I was a 400 level student in a Nigerian university with no side job( popularly known as side hustle), my pocket money and my bills were inversely proportional with a shift to the later and “money bags” (other students that spend money like water) were intimidating us with their steady spending . There were practically more bills to pay for than the stipends I get from home.
I thought about my life one day about how I can get more money and came to the conclusion that I will get a legit side hustle to help myself and my condition.
I went to my friend’s hostel which was a stone's throw from mine and discussed my condition with her.
In the course of this story, I’ll call her(my friend) "M".
I knew M and I were in the same situation but I just felt two birds of the same feather should flock and reason together by the way or even console each other with whose situation is worse.
M lives in a two bedroom flat with three other ladies. Two per room. M and her roommate were home, then only one of the other pair was around. All of us decided to stay at M’s room to rant and gist.
Luckily for me, as I was scrolling through Instagram, I got a DM from a strange account on Instagram which was unusual.
The profile picture looks good so I decided to go through their profile and page. I found out that they were event planners scouting for fit ladies to usher an event.
Their profile looks so good and I was captivated.
I quickly went back to the DM they sent and I figured that they wanted to hire me to be part of the ushers for their next event.
Immediately, I screamed that the lord of side hustles had done it!
M and her housemates asked me what happened so I explained to them and they got interested too.
I hurriedly sent another reply to the request that I have other people that are fit for the job and they’re very much available.
The sender said “that’s good ..that there are four slots remaining after me.”
We were so happy and considered ourselves lucky. We didn’t care about the price because anything extra would really do for us so I didn’t even ask.
The next message she sent was an invitation card to the event that we’re supposed to usher plus the requirements, including color code, texture, and style.
The supposed event place was a popular event center in Akure, the capital city of Ondo state in Nigeria – Dome. We all know the place so there was no need for too much talk.
Furthermore, they told me how we’ll get the dress a few days before the event and test the fit since the outfit has to be uniform and the ushering event fabric is already available in their event planning company.
They sent a form to each of us and we filled and submitted. We even went to a fashion stylist shop to get our full body measurements taken and we included them in our filled forms.
To cap it all, they said we’d be paid fifteen thousand(15,000) naira each immediately after the event but we're required to pay a "token" of three thousand(3000)naira (3k) each for the registration, including sewing of fabrics bills.
We were so excited, the 3k was my last cash that day and I decided to invest it in the service since it'll bear forth fruit and generate 5x the original amount.
Two of the other three ladies had to borrow from someone else to pay theirs and the last lady standing paid hers by herself.
After the whole registration, we waited, preparing and discussing about the upcoming event.
In the middle of our discussion, the fourth housemate arrived from class and we downloaded the gist to her about how she missed her opportunity to get a 15k paycheck in less than a month.
She was so distressed that she decided to message the company and ask to be hired.
In the process of searching, she found out that they were scammers.
She went ahead to the Twitter app to search #”their handle” and there comes a long list of shades for the company. They were tagged fraud and we knew nothing about it.
By the time she told us, we were in disbelief until we searched it by ourselves and confirmed.
I was duped off my last cash in broad daylight! I almost cried.
Fast forward to after I confronted them in the DM, they acted calm and innocent but when I sent screenshots of proof of their scam.. at least for explanations hoping that the internet was wrong about the shades, I guessed they noticed that I’d caught them and they blocked me.
The other lady that paid her money herself started raining curses on them, the other two ladies were extremely sad to get duped of the money that wasn't originally thiers and they were blocked eventually by the company.
Well, RIP to our 3ks.
Before the incident of that day, if someone had told me that I would get scammed online, I’d say it’s a lie and can never happen and I made fun of people that get scammed.
It taught me that one can’t really be a judge of someone else’s life situation except they have been in their shoes.
Experience is a key factor when it comes to some life situations.
The chances of me falling into that kind of trap is now very slim.
I find it hard to believe online vendors and service providers, even recruiters and if I must, I make sure that I do proper and thorough research and investigations on them before trusting.
Now when I see people get scammed, I don’t see them as not smart, the first thing I feel is pity.
Yorubas will say “eni to ba lo mo” ( meaning: it’s the person that got to experience a particular problem is the one that actually knows how it feels).
My 3k went just like that. RIP my 3k, M’s 3k and the other two ladies' 3ks.
There’s a similar story to this online fraud story. I call it part 2 and I’ll definitely write about it another day!
Thank you for reading, I appreciate your patience.