A man has raised an alarm after falling victim to the scam of a fake Customs officer on Facebook. It was revealed that a particular lady, who goes by the name Ademola Victoria on Facebook, with a profile picture which depicts her as a customs woman, has been discovered to be nothing but an Internet fraudster.
The fake account holder has been sending friend requests to people, and whoever falls into that carefully arranged scam by confirming her as a friend is liable to automatically become a prospective victim.
A young graduate, who ignorantly fell her victim, narrated his story.
Hear him: “My name is Bankole Olayiwola Babatunde. On May 15, 2018, one lady in customs uniform as her profile picture, Ademola Victoria, sent me a friend request, which I obliged. The next that happened was to ask me if I was interested in a customs job. As job seeker, I answered in the affirmative. She then asked me to forward my particulars to her; my curriculum vitae (cv), credentials and voter’s card. Since I am in dire need of a job, I did as directed.
“On receipt of my particulars, she sent me a form via whatsapp, telling me to print and fill it, which I did. She thereafter asked me to send the sum of #3,000 into a United Bank for Africa (UBA) account with the following details: Financial Secretary, Ezekiah Imoye Lazarus, 2104136939. Still not suspicious of her wicked intent, I did.
“Thereafter, she told me to open a salary account, where the management would always pay my salaries into after being offered employment. Still not suspicious of her, I tried attempting doing as directed, but didn’t succeed. However, when she tried finding out if I had opened the account, I answered in the affirmative. She then directed me to send #15,000 for application form. I told her I didn’t have such an amount and pleaded with her to help me. Based on that, she sent me the form.
“What happened next was shocking to me. On Thursday, May 31, 2018, a man, Ayomide, called my father, complaining to him that I had duped him to the tune of #170,000 through a business platform known as ‘bit coin’. Another person, who gave his name as Segun, called on Monday, June 4, 2018, saying I duped him in the same manner to the tune of #120,000
“It was later I realized that the fraudster had gone into my Facebook account, uploaded my pictures with which he opened another Facebook account in my name, using Bankole Olayiwola Samuel, the name on my voter’s card”. Bankole narrated.
Embittered Bankole has, however, cried out to Nigerians to discountenance whatever Internet business transactions proposed to them in his name, adding that it was a fraudulent ploy to fleece unsuspecting people.