They are now found virtually everywhere, especially on WhatsApp platforms. How they came to be in such forums where you have to be ‘personally’ acquainted with the administrator(s) to be registered and admitted therein is a kind of puzzle. It is not impossible though that they hacked a bona fide member’s phone number to gain admittance. They go by different names but the common denominator in their nomenclatures is investment or its equivalent as for example, Opay Investment, Nigeria insurance trust fund plc, etc.Their nomenclatures make it appear like they are connected/affiliated to popular organisations, apparently as a bait. In fact, in my first phone conversation with them, they sound like they are a government agency but on deeper probe they say they are registered with the government and further probing reveals that they meant they are registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
If you happen to be carried away by their name, you would be more enticed by their offering which assures you of getting double/treble (depending on the particular ‘company’) of whatever money you ‘invest’ with them. What is more, upon their solicitous post on your platforms, you would see replies from various persons, with screenshots of bank accounts credited with N300,000, N600,000 N900,000, etc., attesting to the ‘veracity’ of the ‘investment’. Then you would calculatingly tell yourself, ‘This one that people are showing off their credit alerts, it should be true’. And the still, small voice in you which had warned you from the very onset after which it was brushed aside by your calculating front brain, reechoes, “scam”. Then the frontal brain quickly takes over, you begin to do the mathematics of things for which you direly need money and to calculate how far the trebled money can go in that regard. Like a flash, from the back brain the small voice warned, ‘you cannot reap where you did not sow’……I first came in contact with these bogus investment organisations while browsing through my Facebook. I saw a post by Nigeria social investment plc in the manner described above. — of people getting treble whatever amount they invest and beneficiaries’ accounts being credited within an hour. Out of curiousity about their modus operandi, I decided to call up the number given (08103421617) with my second MTN phone number. The man told me he would have to register me with my details, Name, phone number, bank name and account, thereafter, according to him, I shall invest with a certain amount (he listed the range of investment amounts) and gave the impression that once an amount is paid into their account, which turned out to be a personal account, my account would be credited accordingly in a jiffy. The snag is that there are stages. At every payment stage, you are given one excuse to pay for something and the impression is given that that would be the last payment. I stopped at the third stage, not prepared to lose further money. He had sent me their investment packages ranging from N5000 to N300,000. I told myself that I could afford to lose N5000 and so paid into the account given. Within minutes he called to apologise that the N5000 package was exhausted so I paid another N5000 for the next package of N10000, assuring me I shall get my payment alert in half an hour. After a while he called again to say that he was sorry he forgot to tell me that there was a processing fee of N3000. He showed me a graph which he said was proof that my investment was about to drop in next few minutes. “Trust me, you will get your alert in five minutes time”. But after that, I got a text from him asking for payment for yet another thing. That was where I backed off.
So when I saw a similar post on a women’s WhatsApp forum to which somebody had added me, I quickly alerted the group and asked the admin to delete the post. The post was by Grace Ene (08023373124). However, I noticed a little information on my phone; it read, ‘+2348034229929 changed to +2348023373124, which means somebody hacked an original number on this platform? Both numbers were switched off when I called severally to ascertain identity of both. Anyway, Grace Ene 08023373124 wrote “Good day everybody. I want to introduce you all to a paying and a legitimate platform which I joined It’s a platform that gives you back double of what you invest in an hour. . And it is called the opay double investment platform and its federally approved by the government under the cooperative affairs commission of the federal republic of Nigeria.
At first, I thought it was a scam but all thanks to the admin who convinced me to try it, the platform is really paying and authentic. I invested N150K and got N300,000. Interested participants should call or WhatsApp Dayo on 07043754096 for registration. For ‘evidence’ she pasted a uba bank transaction “credit Acct 2XX..99X Desc:TNF-OPAY INVESTMENT LATFORM/ONB TRANS TO ENE GRACE Date:2-JUNE-2020. “I wanted to see if Dayo’s number was same as the first fraudster. It was different. Their pictures on their WhatsApp pages were different too although they were both in suits looking like ‘gentlemen’. Having been aware of their modus operandi I wanted to find out whether Dayo and his syndicate’s own ways are different. It was basically same, though I was asked to give additional details as address, email. I gave false information to all of them this time around as follows; Name: Victoria Okoye Address: 8 Anzaya street Lafia, Email:vokoye@gmail Bank; GTB Bank Number 0046102376 (This is an account in which I had cleared my money and no longer using for years) .He text me back on WhatsApp to say that he had registered me. I asked how much was the least amount I could invest, he replied 20K or 40K. I begged that I wished to start with 10,000 naira for a start, just to make sure it is not a scam. “Madam, we have regulations here. Trust me. Once you invest you will get double your money in your account in an hour’s time…”. I agreed and he now sent me the account number to pay into. It was a union bank account and the name was not his. I thereafter switched off to tell my story here. But as I got to the point where I should insert the account number given me and switched on my phone to retrieve it I found it had been deleted. I tried calling back and eventually got through after many trials. I told a lie about why I was unreachable for hours and pleaded with him to resend the account number.He bought my lie and asked me to be fast with the transfer so he can plead with his manager to process my investment quickly so I could be paid within 45 minutes as they were already closing. Surprisingly, he gave me a different number to pay into, namely, Beauty Ogunobo First Bank 3153283168. I cut off from there.Before then, I asked Dayo how they make their profits, he replied that they are investing in cryptocurrency – part of the gains therefrom is given to their customers and the other goes to them according to him. Of course, I did not buy this. In the first instance of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund Plc, I paid N10,000 in two instalments and another N3,000 to the account of Paul Oshoha Aba, Fidelity Bank number 2266886756. They are, apparently, a syndicate made up of men and women.
Ikeano writes from Lafia, Nasarawa state
