I was on my phone that day when the message came in. The picture and name looked foreign and the man told me he was reaching out to me because he got divorced by his wife and she took everything they have built together over the years. I called my friend and showed him the chats but he told me the person is a scammer and I should stop chatting with the account. But then he sent him pictures of a Macbook and iphones and told me he was going to send them to me in Nigeria for always chatting and encouraging him.
I began to believe him at that point. He asked for my address and phone number, saying he would use his own money to do the delivery so I should not worry about anything. When I showed my friend the message, he became convinced too and even begged the man to add extra iphones for him too. The man agreed. Some days later, I received another picture with a fly emirates receipt showing my address and contact details, showing that the items have arrived here in Nigeria. We were excited. Then the man sent me a message, telling me that customs seized the items and he needs to pay them ₦50,000 so they could release the items. Since the items were already in Nigeria, we felt it is easier to just pay and get them. He gave me a Nigerian account and said that’s the bank account of the customs person in charge and I should transfer the money to the account. I transferred ₦15,000 at first and he confirmed receipt. I later sent ₦20,000 and finally ₦10,000 making the total amount sent to him to be ₦45,000.
That was the last time we heard from him as he blocked my friend and I. That was when it dawned on us we have been scammed. We checked online and saw that similar emirates receipt flying around in different scam schemes. It was a bitter experience but we learnt our lessons.”
