Scammed by online vendors

By Kate Halim

Even though there are legitimate vendors on social media who receive payments for goods and satisfy their clients with their services, some unscrupulous elements have used the same medium to scam people.

At different times on social media, some people have called out online vendors who scammed them of their hard-earned money either by not delivering what such clients made payments for or by sending them substandard items.

Saturday Sun spoke to some of the victims of these online vendors and they have different stories to tell.

Last year, Omolola Ogunsakin said she was scammed by an Instagram vendor after she paid for some items that were never delivered to her. She revealed that after making a payment to this alleged seller, the person blocked her on the social media platform.

“I didn’t know it was a fraudulent page because the seller seemed legitimate enough. There were many pictures of fashion items and the account had massive followers. I was scammed of N25, 000 in September of last year. The thing that annoys me most about this incident is that Instagram refused to take down the business page even after my friends and I massively reported the page for fraudulent activities,” she said.

Ogunsakin explained that the first time the business page came up on her Instagram feed, she instantly followed the account because she had a party to attend the following month and she didn’t have the time to go shopping in the market. She said she thought it was a good idea to buy the things she needed online and have them delivered to her doorstep instead of going through the stress of moving from one shop to the other in the market. 

“When I contacted the person handling the account, they were nice and professional. I had no inkling that I was about to be scammed. I chose four fashion items that totalled N25, 000 after the cost of delivery was added to the amount of the items. After I made the payment, I was told that I would get them after 48 hours,” she added.

The young woman, who is based in Lagos, further stated that she didn’t bother herself about the time frame because she had bought things from some online vendors in the past that had the same time policy. But after three days of not getting her items and not hearing anything from any delivery person, she said she sent a message to the seller asking why her items had not been delivered. But she said she got no response.

Ogunsakin said at that point, she became worried because whoever was handling the account would read her messages and not respond. “I started sending threatening messages to the account on the fifth day but I was promptly blocked. Dazed, I contacted some of my friends and told them that I had been scammed. They started sending messages to the account but they were blocked too. Ten days later, I called out the seller on Facebook and begged my friends to report the account to Instagram so that it would be taken down. But that didn’t work. Instead, the account followers kept increasing every day.”

While looking for a way to get to the person behind the fraudulent account, Ogunsakin said she contacted the bank she paid the money into and insisted that they freeze the account because it belonged to a fraudulent person. She said the bank still refused.

“The bank officials told me to go and get a police report but later told me that there was nothing they could do because the person had already withdrawn the money. I was so angry because I consider myself wise and meticulous but I was scammed online. I lost my money and I feel bad about it,” she lamented.

Mr Felix Eshiet said that the first time he made up his mind to shop online, he was scammed. He told Saturday Sun that it wasn’t a pleasant experience at all because he was careful about spending his money on online shopping. But even at that, he bemoaned, he still got scammed. The father of two, who wanted to give himself a treat last December, said he got more than he bargained for when an online vendor delivered something different from what he ordered on their social media page.

He said, “I wanted to get some shirts and decided to buy some online. I came across pictures of lovely shirts on an Instagram page. The seller indicated that he was doing sales because he needed money urgently to clear some goods due to arrive before Christmas so that he could make good sales. I decided to be a good person and patronise a brother. How wrong I was!”

Eshiet, a father of three, said he contacted the seller on the app and made payment for the items, delivery charges inclusive. He revealed that he got the shock of his life when he got the items two days later and they were completely different from what he ordered. “I was pissed because I wasn’t home when the shirts were delivered and there was no way to return them to the seller. The annoying thing was that when I went to the page to complain, I couldn’t find the page on Instagram anymore,” he added.

Eshiet said that he raised an alarm on Instagram narrating what happened with screenshots of his chat with the vendor but he didn’t recover his money and was stuck with substandard shirts. He added that afterwards, he learnt that some people create social media pages with different names just to scam people. “They lay traps for people and anyone who falls into their trap is swindled. They delete the account and set up another account with a different business name. These scammers are just making things difficult for legitimate online sellers and it’s not fair,” he noted.

An avid Facebook user, Ifeoma Iwuoha revealed last week that she was scammed online by a vendor she thought was into legitimate business. Iwuoha, who said she loves to look trendy, noted that it was the second time a fake vendor had scammed her online. She said: “I was scammed two years ago by a vendor who sells wigs. After paying her for a particular wig, she refused to deliver the wig to me. I waited for days for my wig but it never came. When I sent the seller messages demanding an explanation, I was told to exercise patience because the wig was out of stock and that it would be restocked shortly.”

Iwuoha stated that at the time, she didn’t think anything was wrong but after waiting for over a month without getting the wig she paid for, she started panicking. She contacted the seller again and the person gave her another excuse. She added that after waiting for two months, she called out the vendor on Facebook. 

“I posted about my experience with the seller on a Facebook group I belonged to and people started bombarding her phone with calls and sending her messages. I thought about reporting her to the police to teach her a lesson but I was counselled by my family and friends to let it go. They all claimed that it would cost me more money to get justice. I felt defeated and trapped afterwards because I couldn’t do anything to make that scammer pay for what they did to me.”

Mr Chris Ogbonna, a technician also had a story to tell about fake online vendors. In his case, Ogbonna revealed that what he got from a vendor he patronised on Instagram was different from what he ordered. “I was scrolling through the app one afternoon and saw a business page that sells men’s fashion items. I need to buy a pair of shoes and decided to patronise the seller. I regretted it afterwards,” he said.

While narrating his experience, Ogbonna revealed that it wasn’t the first time he was patronising an online vendor. He noted, however, that the experience scared him and made him paranoid. He said that after the seller insisted on the pay before delivery policy, he complied and made payment for the shoes he selected from the pictures on the page. 

“When the shoes were delivered, I was shocked that it didn’t look like what I ordered. I wiped my eyes to make sure I wasn’t dreaming, but it was the reality. I quickly sent a message to the vendor demanding my money back but the person ignored me. The person insisted that what I got was what I ordered. To tell you the truth, that shoe was bad. I couldn’t even give it out to anyone. Since then, I vowed not to patronise online vendors again,” he said.

Abieyuwa Aguebor said she placed an order for smoothies and fruit juices from an online vendor, but that she never got them. “I used to hear about people being scammed by online vendors but I didn’t know I would be a victim. This happened last week. I wanted to buy smoothies and fruit juices to kick start my weight loss journey but I have been denied that opportunity and I have lost money too,” Aguebor stated.

She revealed that when she came across the vendor’s page on Facebook, there were testimonies from different people about how her products have helped them lose weight. She added that she became more determined to do something about her weight by buying some of the smoothies.

Aguebor said: “I paid for five bottles of green smoothies and five bottles of juices last week and up till now, they haven’t been delivered. The seller no longer picks up my calls or responds to my messages. She keeps posting pictures of smoothies on her Facebook page daily but has refused to deliver what I ordered and paid for. I don’t know what to do. I sent her N22, 000 for the smoothies, delivery inclusive,” she lamented