In this episode of the Mo Money series, we spoke to a 25-year-old Businesswoman, who tried to book a trip to Europe for a vacation through a travel agent and got scammed.
Before we start, could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Of course. My name is Sharon, and I’m a real estate consultant, and human hair vendor.
That’s lovely. How many years have you been doing this?
I’ve been in the real estate business for 5 years now, and in the hair business for about 8 months.
Wow! 5 years! And you’re only 25!
Well, let’s just say that I’ve always been a business person.
That’s amazing.
It truly is.
So tell us. How did you discover the travel agent?
I saw his page on Instagram when I was searching for destinations to travel to Europe.
What did you think about the page?
The page looked legit! I could see different testimonials of people who have utilized his services and had a good time in their various destinations.
Hmm. That can be very convincing.
Exactly! Who would not fall for it?
So, tell us about your encounter with him.
I wanted to go on a trip to the UK, so I reached out to him to plan and book a trip. We selected the best hotels, tourist sites, and other activities. He guided me through the whole process and everything was going as planned.
Hmm. very typical for scammers, don’t you think?
Ah, you can never tell o! These people are smart.
So how did it happen?
When we finalized everything, the total cost was 3.5 million, plus his service charge of 500k. By the time I forwarded the total sum, he stopped responding to my texts and blocked me after 2 days.
Ah! 4million naira gone! Just like that?
My dear, I am still in doubt
Has anything been done to get justice?
I tried to report the page on Instagram, but it did not work. Right now, I am trying to create publicity about it by reaching out to PR firms.
That’s too bad!
My dear, I still haven’t recovered from the incident. It’s not easy losing that huge sum to a scammer.
Chai! So sorry that this happened to you.
Aww, it’s fine. We learn from our mistakes
What would you have done differently?
I would have verified the page online by sharing links to friends and family or checking the credibility of the page. I just found out that no one has tagged them in any posts or activities on Instagram.
Hmm. That’s strange, for a page as busy as that.
Exactly! Na now I dey think straight.
At least you learned from your mistakes.
I sure did!
What advice would you give to people reading this article?
Everything you see online is not real. If you can, always verify with people around you before patronizing a service or a Business online. There are a lot of scammers positioning themselves as real people.
