How people fall victim to fake Customs car auction by internet fraudsters

My bishop, I have sent it to you. The Nigeria customs authorized financial secretary account details. Account name Alfa Abdullahi Jibrin. Account number 2285898826 Zenith bank PLC.

Make the payment now and drop the proof of payment to me here on WhatsApp so that we can proceed on the document registration .

He continued his bla bla bla. ‘For how long will the receipt take you to send, man of God . Send me your photo passport.

Pay to Subair Saheed Kayode 0250660414 WEMA bank the sum of #51,000. ‘

When I told him that I have paid he said, ‘ yes I saw it. They are working on the custom duty . I have not received the recharge card I ask of.

Quickly make deposit of #305,000 for custom duty of your vehicle to this account. ‘ I told him I have made the payment.

He said , ‘everything has been put in order now. If you know that you are not ready again let me know but I promise you that if I wait few hours tomorrow morning I will carry my family and go home till they announce the car auction by next year November.

My pastor please call the state controller before morning, we are with the two drivers so that if you people can know what to do tomorrow morning the driver will bring the vehicle to you. Everything depends on you now. Give the driver the balance when he comes around. ‘

Unfortunately, the said driver came without the expected car rather he was busy asking me where he would park the car when he drives into my compound stressing, ‘just give me the balance. I will surely drive the car in within 30 minutes. ‘  He left and never came back that fateful day .

The bubble bust when  I  told my friend what I was passing through and he blamed me for making transactions and payments to people I have not seen their office nor their faces  anyhow.

He advised me that the best step is to go to  that their Seme border custom office and see them face to face and know physically the people I was dealing with.

On the date I had with my friend  we boarded a  bus to Seme border and, to our greatest surprise, when I  called him that I was coming  and almost halfway to the border he shouted, ‘ You want to die. If you come here we will kill you. You want to put us in trouble. Don’t try it unless you want to die. If you try it you will be killed and nothing will happen. Coming to Seme border custom office is not in our arrangement. Please don’t come for your interest . You will still get your car. ‘

With this development my friend advised that we should go back seeing that it is clear that it is a scam, a fraud.

When we got back to my house  my friend advised me to write petition to the then commissioner of police Cp. Hakeem Odumosu to effect the investigation of the case.

The case was referred to a unit in Ikeja division who started the investigation.

The  very unit in Ikeja identified as disaster management unit, a strike force of the Cp. but with office at Ikeja police division building  later sought the assistance of a police officer in another unit in the command headquarters Ikeja who did the tracking and said the suspect he tracked is at Ipoba hill Edo state. He gave the picture and farm address of the tracked suspect.

The victim told the NATION that all efforts to locate the tracked suspect or his farm at Ipoba hill was unsuccessful hence he postponed it till the clearer location of the tracked suspect is known.

Despite the efforts the victim is making to get them arrested they are still calling him to collect the money he told them he had on hand but wanted to complete it to the amount they requested before he would send it.

Contacted for comment the Edo police command public relations officer said the case was not reported to them.

Efforts to get the reaction or comment of the Lagos police public relations officer, a superintendent of police SP Benjamin Hundeyin had not been successful as he would pick call but at the end nothing would be discussed and even the text sent in respect of the case had not been replied till date though he is new and  had  just taken over and had to be briefed by the unit handling the case  before reacting  or  making his comment which is forgivable at the time of filing this report.

However, the victim, pastor Shedrack Okwu called on the inspector general of police IGP Usman Alkali Baba to empower police tracking department to checkmate the menace of the internet fraudsters who impersonate custom officers or any uniformed law enforcement agents to defraud innocent and hard working citizens of this great country, Nigeria.

THE NATION