It was sometime in November 2020. Excitement amidst anticipation was in the air. Yusuf Qudirat’s joy knew no bounds as she would be married in a few days. She couldn’t get the thought of what to wear for her pre-wedding photoshoot off her mind. She was still contemplating when the thought of skimming online engulfed her mind. She recalled there were online sellers on the Facebook marketplace. So she decided to give it a trial.
“I perused through the Facebook marketplace. Ilorin Facebook Marketplace, to be precise. I found the pictures of these turtlenecks online with a price tag which was 3k per one. I ordered two and paid 4500 naira with a promise to balance on delivery. I thought it was safe on the marketplace. The delivery never came and has been a mystery till the present day,” Qudirat said.
“And that was how I was robbed of my 4500 naira,” She concluded.
Similarly, Isabella Ogidiolu, an online seller who deals in wears, narrated how she got conned in 2022 by a supplier she met on the Facebook marketplace under the guise of selling her wholesale wears.
“Met this lady on Facebook marketplace. She was into clothes. I messaged her, got her number, and we chatted on WhatsApp. I asked her to add me to her wholesale group, but she declined. She sent the pictures of the items to me. Immediately I got them, I forwarded the pictures to my own wholesales group ’cause I sell wholesales too,” Isabella said.
After sending those pictures to my buyers, they paid for it and then I made the orders. And paid the woman because I erroneously believed that the marketplace was a safe space. So I sent her the money and waited for her to send the driver’s number.
She didn’t send the number and didn’t pick up my calls. When I use other people’s numbers to call her, she will block their lines. I made a post on Facebook but I was unable to tag her cause I sensed she blocked me. And that’s how she made me inconveniently refund 20k to my aggressive customers,” Isabella ended.
The bitter tales of Qudirat and Isabella explain the travails of victims of cyber criminals in Nigeria, and how they were rendered helpless in securing their hard-earned money back from the fraudsters.
Undercover
In order to understand the nitty-gritty of how these scammers operate, this reporter decided to peruse how they strike under the guise of joining their team. So one day, he was scrolling through Facebook Marketplace where he saw some clothes for sale to which he messaged the seller for negotiation.
The seller, Pato Ahmed (not real name), after sending a series of pictures of quality up-and-down wears to this Reporter, confirmed that all the clothes are 5000 naira per pair of quality clothes.
“Oga, everything goes for 5k. Just tell us what you want and your location, and we will surely deliver,” Pato said.
I chose some clothes and informed him that I would be paying when he delivered. To this, the seller felt reluctant but just played on.
“That won’t be a problem, but you will have to pay 1k as the delivery fee,” Ahmed explained. “You are going to use 1k to deliver from Port Harcourt?” This Reporter inquired.
The seller, later identified as Sunny Johnson by Opay, remained silent and did not speak when he sensed that this Reporter had a hint of his scam. And when this reporter persuaded him that he was aware of the trade and merely eager to learn how to defraud people in the marketplace. He was, at first, sullen. However, after a series of pleadings and a promise to credit him, he agreed to teach this Reporter how to do the work.
“You will enter your marketplace and create an account with them. Post the clothes you want to sell. You can save pictures of clothes you see on the marketplace and repost it,” Sunny said.
When this reporter asked him how to get clients, he said, “They will come to you, just make sure you lessen the price,”
You send them pictures, and if they pay, you tell them they will receive orders, and after they send the money, you block them. However, if they insist on paying on delivery, you get the delivery fee, which is 1k and afterwards, you block them,” He concluded.
Sunny Johnson assured that this ‘update’ (or new scamming method), as he called it, is an emerging one which is yet to be casted (or detected by many).
Looking through Pato Ahmed’s Facebook profile bore the imprint of a fake account because there were only four photographs posted, which indicates that the account was hijacked for a global fraud but later changed on the Facebook Marketplace to be used for a local scam.
Ajegba Wisdom (his name was retrieved through True Caller) is another scammer from the marketplace who disguised himself as a cheap phone dealer. He said all the phones go for 25k in a WhatsApp conversation with this reporter.
He persisted in his business being a legit one, however, upon a series of pleas from this reporter, he later considered teaching our reporter how to scam on the consideration of a specific amount, which is 5000 naira.
He assured him that he makes at least 30k a day from the business. He asked this Reporter to bring five thousand naira. “I learnt this update with close to 30,000 naira, I’m only being considerate by asking you to bring 5k. That’s a chicken change,” Wisdom said.
It’s a trade you will make 40 to 50k every day depending on the person you tame and how serious you are with it,” He ended.
Esther Nna, who happened to be a victim of Wisdom, said he asked her to pay 5k for the order, and then afterwards, she could pay the rest on delivery. However, after a few minutes of crediting Wisdom, he asked for another 3k, stating that the original amount was not enough.
Insert Esther Nna, Wisdom’s Victim here
“I had to leave him to hold on to the 5k when I realized he is a scam. I was gullible in the first place for trying to buy an iPhone X for 25k,” Esther explained.
Like Esther said, it was observed that these scammers have one thing in common. They usually have a low price for the commodities sold.
The Facebook Marketplace
The Facebook marketplace is a section provided for Facebook users to buy and sell commodities such as clothes, shoes, gadgets and many more all in the comfort of their homes.
However, because there are few to no regulations on who may sell on the space, internet con artists have chosen to take advantage of this fact. By posing as vendors and subsequently defrauding victims of their hard-earned money.
To sell on the marketplace, you only need to have a Facebook account and open one on the space. There is neither verification as to the genuineness of the account nor any strict provision to protect innocent customers from falling victim.
In Nigeria, cybercrimes are perpetrated by individuals, hackers or connected networks of criminals motivated by financial interests. For instance, a gang of seven hackers stole N900 million (US$24 000) from a single bank via malware in Lagos on 10 March 2018, according to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
In 2018, commercial banks in Nigeria lost a cumulative N15 billion (US$39 million) to electronic fraud and cybercrime. This was a 537% increase on the N2.37 billion loss recorded in 2017. Over 17,600 bank customers and depositors lost N1.9 billion to cyber fraud in 2018, with the fraud rising by 55% from the previous year.
Nigeria’s Consumer Awareness and Financial Enlightenment Initiative has projected a US$6 trillion loss by 2030 to cybercrime within and outside Nigeria. These crimes are committed mostly through phishing and identity theft.
On Tuesday, 31st of May, an INTERPOL-led operation targeting malware cyber fraud across Southeast Asia led to Nigeria and the arrest of three suspected global scammers.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested the suspects in a sting operation conducted simultaneously in a Lagos suburb called Ajegunle and in Benin City, 300 km to the East of Lagos.
Also, in 2019, the Nigerian Anti-graft Agency, EFCC, along with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) arrested 281 individuals for cyber-enabled financial fraud, among whom 167 were Nigerians.
The estimated annual financial loss in Nigeria due to cybercrime was N250 billion ($649 million) in 2017 and N288 billion ($800 million) in 2018, yet 95 percent of cybercrimes go unreported.
Cyber Crime: An Offense Punishable by Law
According to the CYBERCRIMES PROHIBITION PREVENTION ACT 2015, it is prohibited for anyone to access a computer or gadget with the sole intention of scamming another.
Section 6(1) of the Act provides that: “Any person, who without authorization, intentionally accesses in whole or in part, a computer system or network for fraudulent purposes and obtain data that are vital to national security, commits an offense and shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of not more than 5 years or to a fine of not more than N5,000,000.00 or to both fine and imprisonment.”
According to Attairu Haruna, a legal practitioner, the major problems of this provision include the inability to identify who is authorized to access a computer system and the likelihood of the prosecution not being able to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
He said, “I think authorization to access internet data should always be written spelling out the extent of authorization.”
All attempts to reach Facebook and hear from them returned void. Facebook did not reply to all the mails sent to get their side of the story.