…Dupe residents with Jonathan’s name
By Kelechi Esogwa-Amadi
Information gathered by TPCN reveals that Facebook scammers in Port Harcourt are now defrauding Nigerians with the name of former president, Goodluck Jonathan.
These Facebook scammers disseminate fake information about an ongoing empowerment programme being funded by the former president to assist Nigerian youths to set up businesses and become self-reliant.
According to a source, the scammers post the ‘empowerment’ message to unsuspecting Nigerians in the name of Jonathan, deceiving them to believe that the message was sent by the Bayelsa-born former president.
To further make their prospective victims believe that the message is from Jonathan, they post it with his picture and claim in the message that the empowerment entails sending the sum of six hundred thousand naira (N600,000) to them.
The scammers, in their message, usually tell their prospective victims to call the phone number of Jonathan’s financial secretary, whose name is given as Mukai Sammie, and the money would be credited by the latter.
However, TPCN learnt that if the person calls the number, a man will pick and introduce himself as Mukai Sammie, financial secretary to the former president, Goodluck Jonathan.
He will then confirm the empowerment programme and tell the person to send his account number, after first pleading with him to make sure he wisely uses the N600,000 to establish a business so that the purpose for which the empowerment was initiated would not be in vain.
But the person’s joy of getting such huge amount of free money will not last long as they will now tell him or her that his bank is not among those chosen to release the money to recipients.
As an alternative, they will tell the person to pay an amount of money that will not be less than ten thousand naira to facilitate the payment of the money from one of the so-called chosen banks to the person’s account number.
This facilitation fee, TPCN uncovered, is referred to as C.O.T (Cost of Transfer or Transaction) by the scammers, which they claim is charged by the Central Bank of Nigeria to enable the non registered bank of the prospective victim receive the payment.
A Port Harcourt resident, who said he fell victim to the scammers last weekend,, told TPCN that what saved him from the hands of the fraudsters was that the transaction did not go through, as he had already been deceived up to the point of transferring money to the fraudsters.
Narrating his ordeal in the hands of the scammers, the victim (name withheld), said he saw their post on his Facebook page and thought it was from Jonathan whom he said is his friend on Facebook.
He further explained: “I was happy when the supposed former president, in the message, said he is giving Nigerians N600,000 to help them start businesses. So I called the number he said belongs to his financial secretary, one Mukai Sammie, who asked me to send my account number, after asking me a few questions about my family.
“But when I told him that I use Access Bank, he told me that Access Bank is not among the banks chosen to remit the money. He mentioned First Bank, Heritage Bank, Jaiz Bank and one other bank as those registered to pay the empowerment money and that I should pay the sum of N13,250 as C.O.T. to enable CBN allow the transfer to Access Bank.
“When I told Mukai Sammie that I don’t have up N10,000 in my account, he said I should send the one I have and that he will complete it for me but that I should make sure I refund him as soon as I get the N600,000. He even told me that he will first communicate with his empowerment committee members in Port Harcourt since I’m staying here.
“I quickly rushed to the nearest branch of my bank and transferred about N8,000 something to a First Bank account number he sent to me.
“He even demanded for the debit alert my bank sent me to confirm that I paid the money and I forwarded it to him. But it was when he insisted that he had not seen the credit alert and demanded that I send him the customer line on the back of my ATM card that it dawned on me that he was a scammer. But miraculously, the transaction did not go through. That was what saved me. They would have duped me of my hard-earned money.
“Honestly, people should be careful. Nigerians are now very desperate to make money because of the hardship in the country and so they can go to the extent of using a former president’s name to dupe people. It’s so unfortunate. May God deliver us in this country.”
According to this victim, the message the scammers sent to him on his Facebook reads thus: Goodluck Ebele Jonathan 9 May at 12:54 · MY DEAR DUE TO THE NETWORK INSTABILITY ON MY PRIVACY I HARDLY COME HERE FOR A CONVERSATION REMEMBER FAMILY MAN DOES NOT ALWAYS HAVE TIME TO DO WITH SOCIAL MEDIA, BUT THAT WILL NOT STOP ME TO INFORM YOU ABOUT THE ON GOING EMPOWERMENT OF (600,000.00) I AM GIVING TO EVERYONE, ESPECIALLY MOST OF OUR NIGERIANS YOUTHS, TO START UP A BETTER SECURABLE BUSINESS AND TO AS WELL FURTHER THEIR EDUCATION, HERE IS MY FINANCIAL SECRETARY HIS NAME ID MUKAI SAMMIE, CALL HIM NOW (07059016003) TELL HIM I GOODLUCK EBELE JONATHAN NIGERIA X PRESIDENT SENT YOU THAT YOU WANT YOU OWN EMPOWERMENT, PLEASE DO CALL HIM NOW .07059016003. FOR CREDITING YOUR ACCOUNT.
