VICTOR AYENI writes on the proliferation of criminals posing as online vendors who fleece citizens by either not delivering products after payment or delivering low-quality items
With the last mental strength Chiamaka Nwankwo could muster, she still was not able to dispel the disbelief gnawing away at her mind like a worm. It made her question her moral choices.
The 27-year-old native of Owerri, Imo State, just got discharged from a hospital and was just recovering from the effect of the shock she sustained after being scammed by an online vendor.
Speaking haltingly with Sunday PUNCH on the telephone, Nwankwo, who resides in South Africa, said she had planned a fashion line and met a vendor online who sold ladies’ clothing fabrics and accessories.
After weeks of observing the vendor named Macdonald (surname withheld), whom she met on Facebook, she sent him a private message that culminated in what she described as a cordial exchange that went further to WhatsApp.
Nwankwo stated, “This guy introduced himself to me as an online vendor and the name of his page was Quality Fabrics. Macdonald claimed to deal in ladies’ attire, shoes, and other accessories. When I reached out to him and we spoke, he told me he’s from Orlu, Imo State, and has a shop in Ubulu Okiti in Delta State.
“The conversation moved to WhatsApp but I held back from purchasing anything from him. I wanted to observe him first. I saw that he posts a lot of items and posts reviews from the people who have purchased his items. After a while, I felt that since we communicated by phone and messaging and he didn’t give off any scam vibe, I should patronise him.
“I sent him a message and sent him the clothing items I wanted to purchase because I know he sells in bulk and I planned to return to Nigeria and set up a clothing business.
“I told him about my plans and promised to pay him in instalments and when payment is completed, he would send the items to me through a waybill method. I made the first batch of payment in October.”
Nwankwo told our correspondent that by the end of November, she had paid more than N600,000 to Macdonald with the hope that he would send the clothing items to her in wholesale quantities.
“I had planned to return to Nigeria this month (December), so I sent him pictures of the set of items that I wanted to resell and I calculated up to over N400,000. I paid over N350,000 for the second set of items and N300,000 for the previous one, making a total of N650,000, and I was about to complete the payment of N100,000 to him when the bubble burst.
“My mother was coming down to South Africa and I asked him to single out some items I had purchased for my mother and send them to her in Owerri so that she could wear them when coming to visit me. He asked for an additional sum of N2,500 and I sent it to him.
“He sent me pictures of my mother’s items, which he claimed to have packaged but I use a particular delivery agency here in South Africa, which required his waybill number. I asked him for this number, but he ignored my messages. It was then I realised that I had been scammed and that no product was coming because the waybill was the evidence and he knew that.
“I sent his number to my sister and he responded to her message, but he was no longer responding to me. A couple of my friends also dialled his number; he would take their calls but he would not say anything to them.”
With a tinge of sadness in her voice, Nwankwo disclosed that due to the bank application he used, she had not been able to trace Macdonald’s address or other identifiable details that might have helped law enforcement agents to track him.
“I kept seeing his posts on WhatsApp, which means he is still active there, but he neither takes my calls nor responds to my messages. Unfortunately, the bank app he uses does not require a National Identification Number, so I have not been able to get his particulars,” she lamented.
Vendor scammed by another
For Bolanle Adepoju, who herself is an online vendor, her pain was deepened by the lengths to which an individual who posed as a social media vendor went to fleece her.
Speaking with our correspondent on Wednesday, Adepoju, who sells gift items online, explained that she had customers outside Ibadan, Oyo State, where she resides.
She stated, “I don’t have a shop yet, so I sell stuff online and people purchase items from me. They trust me with their money and I have been doing this for a long time and I tend to get more customers online than physically, and I also patronise online vendors as well.
“Things have been going smoothly for me until 2023. I came across a lady, who was operating a page called Prestige Collection on WhatsApp and Instagram. She markets beautiful bags and tells her followers how she delivers swiftly and is ready to ensure that everything works well.
“I had no problem with trusting vendors, so it was quite easy for me to trust her without getting to know whether she was a scammer or operated a dubious business.
“Even at that, before I sent money to her, I was having mixed feelings about it, so I didn’t send money immediately. I watched how she advertised her stuff and I requested to join her group. She added me to her Telegram group, where she posts how she waybills her bags and how several ‘customers’ appreciate her products and are sending in money for more. That got me convinced.”
Adepoju noted that after being a member of the group for three months, she finally sent money to the lady, who was later identified as Mercy (surname withheld), to purchase some bags.
She added, “What I didn’t know at the time was that this lady was using different strategies to scam people. Before I paid, she asked me to pay using my waybill fee. I did and I sent her the proof of payment. She requested my waybill details and I sent them too.
“I made that payment on Saturday and she told me that I would receive my package on Sunday. From my professional experience, I know it usually takes three or four days and at most three weeks for packages to be delivered. So when she said I would get it after 24 hours, I supposed she had a deal with a personal driver who delivered her bags for her.
“Some people pay and get the products the next day so it didn’t come as a shock to me. The next day, I didn’t get any call or message from the driver and didn’t receive any package, so I sent the vendor a message and she told me that I would soon get it. On Monday, I chatted her up and I noticed that she had started avoiding me. I called her and she said the package was coming, so I was quiet for a week.”
Adepoju found out to her chagrin that she had been scammed and the vendor had blocked her on her WhatsApp and Telegram accounts.
She added, “I stopped seeing any updates on her WhatsApp status and Telegram group. It then dawned on me that she was posting fake reviews. I thought I got a bag supplier, not knowing that she was just busy creating WhatsApp groups, updating her status, and even posting fake reviews to attract people so that she could scam them.
“What gets me more confused is how people get scammed by these unscrupulous elements and decide to keep quiet about it. Had it been that they shared their experiences, I am sure people would have been aware of this lady and her antics. This vendor identified as Mercy claimed that she operates from Lagos, but when I gave out her number to my friends, she gave them three different locations in Ogun, Abia and Oyo states.
“It was when I posted on Facebook how she scammed me that many people came to the comment section to narrate their ordeals with this same vendor. If they had spoken up earlier, I would not have fallen victim.”
Vendor’s address tracked
A Lagos-based engineer, who gave his name only as Charles, told our correspondent that he was scammed by an Instagram user who operated a page named Shopfast Sales, where smartphones were being offered for sale.
Charles lamented that he lost a huge amount of money, which he refused to disclose when he ordered a smartphone from the supposed vendor.
He narrated, “In August, I came across this account, which posted a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra with S Pen and USB (Phantom White 128GB) for sale. I decided to patronise it and I was referred to what I thought was the real account on Instagram. It had a lady’s face and the name Courage (surname withheld).
“That was also the name on the account I made the transfer to. After I got debited, she blocked me. I lost a huge amount of money because of my gullibility. I have heard of people being scammed but not in this manner.
“I went to the bank she used and the information on their system traced the address to Shaire Road, Mechanic Village, in Sapele. That’s Delta State. They also found out that the account holder is a man! I saw his picture and real name. From my findings, the guy had been arrested before.”
Fake wigs delivered
The manager of a firm, Keji Ojelade, told our correspondent how a wig that was delivered to her by an Instagram vendor was different from the one she ordered.
“It happened in August 2019 when I ordered two wigs from an Instagram vendor and they were more expensive than what you would obtain in the market. When the wigs were delivered, they were worse than fibre. The account user, by the way, was no longer responding to my messages; since then I’ve learned my lessons,” she said.
Two sides of a coin
Sunday PUNCH gathered that many Nigerian traders were taking advantage of the Internet to expand their operations globally and facilitate easy access, leading to a surge in online business in the country’s cyberspace.
Sadly, scammers have also taken advantage of the ubiquity of the Internet and the near anonymity it provides to cheat and exploit unwary citizens.
Despite the number of legitimate online traders, some criminals pose as vendors to bilk people out of their money.
Scam Watch website states, “Scammers use the latest technology to set up replicas of familiar shopping websites or fake new websites. They may use sophisticated designs and layouts, possibly stolen logos, and fully registered ‘com.ng’, ‘.ng’ domains. Many of these websites offer luxury items such as popular brands of clothing, jewellery, and electronics at extremely low prices.
“The biggest tip-off that a retail website is a scam is the method of payment. Scammers will often ask you to pay using anonymous payment platforms such as iTunes gift cards and e-currencies (e.g. Perfect Money, Bitcoin, etc), but if you send your money this way, it’s unlikely you will see it again or receive your purchased item.”
The article itemised some of the warning signs of such fake vendors or shops including “unprofessional website design, unreasonable popups and errors, and suspicious domain names usually containing long and hyphenated names, including names of popular online shopping sites such as jumia234.com, buy-cheap-electonics-online.com.ng or something similar, and traces of cloning or mimicking of an existing shopping website.
“Scammers often mislead their victims by cloning an existing shopping website or popular brand in every aspect of looks and design to defraud them, unclear or grammatically incorrect content or product descriptions,” the article added.
Business growth stymied
The Country Manager for DPO Pay, a pan-African payment service provider, Henry Owolabi, in a statement, decried the rate at which fraud had become a complex challenge “costing the local economy hundreds of millions of US dollars each year.”
According to him, this is “hurting the growth of a promising e-commerce sector because players across the ecosystem are nervous about losing money – merchants because of the chargebacks they face, and shoppers are worried about sharing their card details in case they have their accounts compromised.”
Owolabi also noted that the result of the rise in fraud was a population that had become wary of shopping online. He added that research conducted by his company found that around 60 per cent of users would rather opt for pay-on-delivery options than share their card details when using online payment options.
Danger in online purchases
In March 2023 the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation warned that fraudsters were getting more creative, requiring extra vigilance from the Nigerian public.
An online vendor, Omonigho Omoniacc, in a post made on her Facebook page on November 18, wrote, “Ensure to do a proper background check before sending your money to any online vendor, including me. Don’t be in a hurry to place an order. Ask appropriate questions.
“Check who they follow and who follows them on social media. Monitor their online presence and listen to your guts. Never be comfortable once they are pressurising you to make an order. Please run.
“If they have one or more verification badges on online marketing groups, it is a bonus because this is not easy, but that is not to say that people who do not get online marketing group validation aren’t genuine. Be on alert.”
A digital marketer, Collins Omozemoje, in a telephone interview with our correspondent, explained that fake online vendors operate in different ways and they succeed due to the nature of social media.
He stated, “Social media is a delicate terrain and there is a need for caution in purchasing materials from online vendors. There have been many cases of people who send money to purchase certain products but they either do not get them or they are given what is different from what they ordered.
“These scammers operate in different ways; they write fake reviews about their products; they steal identities or create false identities; and exaggerate the viability of their products. Some of them also come in the form of people soliciting alms from people online. Like the old saying, ‘Let buyers be wary’.
“The unfortunate part of it is that this scamming is bringing down businesses and if it continues, I don’t know how people will be able to maintain their income. Some of these vendors operate as syndicates and the funds received are shared in different accounts.”
Highlighting tips one could utilise, Omozemoje urged users to verify the locations of the vendors, inquire from other users and read their reviews.
He added, “If you are purchasing anything online, you must check the reviews about who is selling it. Inquire from others and if you are not convinced, you need to clarify the location before making a payment.
“I must also add that people should not be afraid of these fraudsters. They should be called out because some are genuine and some are fake. If someone has scammed you, you should take up the case with law enforcement agencies, track who is the culprit, and get them prosecuted.”
