Some two years ago, i almost made myself a victim of online fraud.
I was on a 30-minute break from my job when I stumbled across 'Sure Wealth Organization.''' It was a sponsored post on Facebook.
I read their advert, and it looked promising, so I clicked on the comment section to see what people were saying there.
It was women. It was mostly filled with women dropping their phone numbers to be added to a WhatsApp group where everything will be explained.
It was a money thing that gave promises of helping women in Africa have a voice and be independent. However, it stated that there was room for men to join in, too.
I registered for the Zoom meeting that instant so that I would get a notification before it started.
Once it was 8 p.m., I joined the meeting on Zoom. Women were everywhere. Almost a hundred of them with a handful of men.
I thought that it must be genuine, because if it's not, why are people flooding to the meeting?
They said that the meeting would be for an hour. That they weren't an organization given to much talk but action.That all they want is to talk about money and go. That made me glad.
Soon, one woman muted everybody and started the meeting. She was speaking phonetics. Me, I was enjoying the smooth voice.
She talked about 'Sure Wealth Organization' and how it was helping lives and saving people and growing prominent, affluent men and women. I was more interested.
Soon, she introduced another 'very important personality' to us. One fair guy, weearing a bright pink lipstick. Or it was his lip color. I couldn’t tell.
He talked about how 'Sure Wealth Organization' saved his life and his family, how he was on the verge of commiting suicide due to the terrible financial state that he was in before somebody introduced him to it.
They went on and on. Just testimony upon testimony upon testimony upon fair, fine women. I just stayed put, listening and waiting for the main course.
Almost an hour later, they introduced the ceo Ha. They way they sang her praises, I told myself that people must sing my praise like that in this life.
This woman started speaking. Ah. Phonetics. Smoothness. She shared videos and pictures of her house in Abuja, how the program changed her life, and has been changing people's lives through her, how many countries she has visited.
It was 9pm. I was getting impatient, so I went to the chat box and asked when we would get on to the real thing.
Yes, I had audacity!
She then started speaking the money language. She was so fast that the amounts were flying off my ears.
This woman was mentioning millions and billions. And then she dropped a bombshell. She got down to calling huge amounts that people had to pay. For a program that they had advertized and even had on as the meeting title as 'free.' I went down to the comment section, and it was burning hot with comments from people blasting the new development. Some even were raining abuses. Surprisingly, only two persons left the meeting, and i wasn't one of them. I had to see the meeting to the end and know how it played
So she said that the slot was for five lucky people. They had to pay over 200k naira. Lol.
She mentioned the second amount for ten lucky people. About 100k naira.
Finally, she got down to 50k. The least amount with the least returns. I heaved. Finally, an amount that seemed reasonable. She said the offer was for 13 lucky people. Saying that after 13 people made payments, they would evict the rest.
I was tempted. I started to count the numbers to know when to sign in for last-minute payment. The organizers were mentioning names of people they'd got alerts from.
But I couldn't send the money. Everywhere was rowdy, and I didn't like things that confused me and that was not ready to teach me to understand.
The way she was mentioning sums of money and posting cars and adding and subtracting confused me.
Me, I don't make these money decisions strictly on my own. I texted my friend and told him, "Guy! Check out this organization for me. Tell me what you think."
His reply was in the negative; "bro, I don't trust it. They filled the websites with pictures and videos with no explanation of what they do and how."
Before he gave me feedback, I had indicated interest with my name and number. I left the group after the feedback.
As I slept that night, before I woke, a voice told me not to try it. (I am an impulsive person. One minute, someone is telling me not to do something, another minute, I'm convinced I need to do it.) But when my spirit/hunch/intuition said no, I agreed to it.
A representative from the organization started to call me by the hour after that day, saying they would give me time to raise the 50k. I left the group and told the caller that I was still interested but that I had 20k.
She said she would get back me; called me five minutes after, and said I could pay installmentally. That her bosses were unhappy with her for begging on my behalf. She proceeded to forward me account details again.
After two days, she called me angry. I told her the person I was hopeful to get the money from disappointed me and asked if I could be allowed into the circle on probation.
She called me a fool and dropped the call.
I laughed so hard, and all that kept running in my mind was, "Ah, Lucky, you were lucky. You just escaped getting scammed."
I hope that this was interesting to read. Thanks for stopping by.