WISH.COM: MY EXPERIENCE WITH A FRAUDSTER AND MY TRUMP CARD
I recall reading a certain chapter of one of my favourite childhood novel, Chike and the River written by Chinua Achebe that talked about Chike’s encounter with the money doubler. I want to think that that was my first time as a kid to come across anything facsimile to scam.
The word, scam is not a new word in the English dictionary and neither is it a new word in the streets of Nigeria.
In fact, the word, scam has morphed into a lot of nomenclatures since the turn of the 21st century. Its lineage grew from 419 to yahoo and now a very unpopular one still gathering storm, ‘hustle’ in the Nigerian street lingua franca.
At least every family especially in the southern part of Nigeria have at least one person in the family who has fallen victim of this multi million dollars fraud enterprise.
The crimes perpetrated by these lots cuts across every known form of human communication. The internet is the most widely used platform in carrying out these crimes from recent studies.
Scammer /‘skamÓ™/ according to Oxford Languages Dictionary means a person who commits fraud or participates in a dishonest scheme. The act in itself is called scam.
Because I am narrowing down this expose to Nigeria, I will be trickling down to the most prevalent forms of scams alias yahoo perpetrated here and they range through:
Cyber crime scams
Telephone scams
Online dating or relationship scams
Online shopping and finance scams
E-mail scams
Social media scams
Of all listed, cyber crime, social media scams and online dating or relationship scams are rifest in the country.
These get-rich-quick schemes are mostly carried out by youths between the ages of 20 and 35. But you will be shocked that it is now a thing for even teenagers and people above 35. Should I employ a comic relief to this? I don’t think so; at least not this time. There is nothing comical about someone losing his or her hard earned money to some cynical dude under false pretense or even unaware that he or she has lost money.
“What most unsuspecting
People think is that,
They can’t be scammed or
‘It can’t happen to me’ thought”
But until you get scammed only then ‘I can’t be scammed remains’ plausible.
I was a victim myself. It was about 7:58pm on Friday, October 1st and I had just finished with one of my articles on this blog when I decided to pay my electricity bill. I had just added all the details for the transfer and sent when I got a feedback that my account had insufficient funds. It wasn’t possible I knew. I had just received my salary for the month of September some three days back and had only purchased a few things and was left with some money still. “This must be my bank’s network issue”, I was convinced. I repeated the transaction and I received same message again.
My chest tightened and I felt hallow. I was devastated and paranoid. It was a dream. Did I just notice that something had somehow made away with my salary? I never got any debit alerts confirming the removal. However, I got the debits three days later. What marveled me the most was the fact that I had never disclosed my pin to anyone. Yet, my card was used without my notice.
With flushes, perspiration and my heart racing I dialed the customer care number behind my ATM card (credit card). It was the longest conversation of my life. After some backs and forth came some revelations. Someone had used my card to make some orders from wish.com and the three different orders were still pending. The anonymous person did not leave any stone unturned when draining the whole funds from my card.
I was dazed and expressionless at first then it all came back to me; I have just fallen victim of yahoo.
My mind went into a frenzy. My mind became like a Google search column. I began to search through my mind for all the encounters I had had with my card in my possession. Being a careful and disciplined person, I was able to trickle down my search to a particular person who was in fact working in the same office with me albeit, a cleaner – because he was the only one that have access to my office. It was a suspicion but my intuitions have rarely led me astray. But how can I prove that a boy barely twenty years old and working could carry out such a crime despite the fact that I have been very good to him. He even stopped coming to work after carrying out the act perhaps, he felt he had arrived. At least, I have seen some of his friends come by the office and merely looking at them, one could tell they could conjure some affable thoughts; and what did they say again about ‘show me your friend, and I will tell who you are’ – an assumption indeed but a good stepping stone at unlocking the true identity of any individual
I had read a little about crimes and yahoo and it was like a mockery to me, that I could be duped. It was a tale I often heard from other family members and friends. Here I was sipping from same bottle I never thought I would ever purchase least to say drink. Same drink I have watched others drink and became tipsy with Involuntary Suspicious Mentality (ISM) at everything and everyone - welcome to the team.
The call to my customer care was a thoughtful one but I needed to make some other moves. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) was not an option. This was an in-workplace petty robbery and I was going to unearth the evidence myself (If you are duped in Nigeria, please contact the EFCC).
The harrow and tears for my loss made way to my investigation. Hearing about Wish for the first time, I immediately went onto their site and created an account; I registered an official complaint to their support team.
Thanks to Jas, Ajay, Neha, Gaurav , Shraddha and Harshal who replied me up to speed. The robot’s message said I was to expect replies in 2-3 business days after my first message but I never knew I was about to witness the best International Customer Service ever. My first reply came in barely 2 hours later and the rest was admirable.
I sent a snapshot of my bank statement proving that three transactions were paid for using my card.
After submitting a few details of my card, I was forwarded the complete list of the goods purchased with my card. I believe they confirmed the client’s account from where my card was used to make the purchase, flagged it and will grant me a refund of my money within ten (10) business days. The orders that were made will refunded perhaps to the dealers from where the package ought to be shipped from.
Wish Support is the best so far in customers’ service I have seen and witnessed firsthand.
A little aside; I will gladly want to recommend to Online Shoppers all around the world from Germany, Nigeria, USA, Amsterdam, Toronto, South Africa, UK, China, Korea to other parts of Africa and Europe to Shop Here at wish.com and be rest assured to be at peace with yourself. No hassle, no worries
Back to where I left off. My friend downloaded Business Whatsapp and feigned to be Wish’s Whatsapp Support from where he contacted Emmanuel.
After leaving a message of possible shipping fault with Emmanuel’s order from Wish.com, the unsure but predicted happened two days later. Emmanuel caught the bait. He began calling to make enquires about his order. He unknowingly sent all the pictures of the orders he made thereby shooting himself in the foot unknowingly to him.
After his orders were refunded back to the dealers, his calls intensified and yes, the criminal was caught red handed.
To cut the long gist brief, he was sacked from the office and he will be writing a statement at the police station. He first was tough in coming forth with the truth until the whole voice notes and pictures were showed to him. It was like a hot yam stucked in the esophagus kind of situation.
I was taught a bitter lesson not to trust anyone not even in the office space and not to be care free anymore with my keys or personal items.
I was glad though that I found a worthwhile online shopping site that is not just reputable and trust worthy but will go extra miles at setting things straight when issues of malpractices arise.
So if I may ask, which site online do you do your shopping and what are you waiting for to make your first order from wish.com and not lose sleep anymore about being duped or receiving a different or ill fitting product.
Shop here using our coupon Wish.com today and get good bonuses on your first purchases.
They have a 30 days refund policy on any goods you turn down. Isn’t that cool?
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