Published 30th May, 2023

By Abimbola Abatta

Gloria Eze (real name withheld), a Lagos State resident, never imagined she would fall victim to a scam when she sent N18,000 to an Instagram vendor two months ago.

She told FIJ that she ordered a dress from wears.store_ng, the instagram vendor, on March 25 but got nothing.

The vendor was supposed to deliver the dress on March 27, but she stopped responding to Eze’s messages after receiving payment for the dress.

“That was my first time of patronising her. The seller blocked me on all platforms and did not deliver my dress to me. This was after I had transferred N18,000 to a PalmPay account number sent to me. The name on the account was Akinpelu Bode.

“I chatted with the vendor, asking for either my dress or a refund, but she kept mute. It’s already two months, yet I haven’t heard anything,” said Eze.

receipt showing payment made to the Instagram vendor — The payment receipt

Ignored messages sent to Instagram vendor — The ignored chats

The Instagram page where the order was placed — The page where the order was placed

Interestingly, FIJ found that the person handling the Instagram page had changed the name from wears.store_ng to enchantress_wear. Also, the fraudster has another page with over 12,000 followers. The name is wearsnest_ng.

The two pages, enchantress_wear and wearsnest_ng, had the same Instagram bio and phone number. In addition, the vendor’s last post on the latter was dated March 11, while the last post on the former was May 20.

According to additional findings by FIJ, several other buyers have also fallen victim to the same Instagram vendor’s fraudulent activities.

It was further discovered that the scammer uses different PalmPay account numbers to collect money from unsuspecting buyers.

In a scam alert posted on nairaland.com on April 14, one of the platform users warned others against patronising the scammer. The post corroborated Eze’s earlier disclosure that the vendor blocked her after she had made payment. The poster said:

“BEWARE: Toluwalase Azeez Oloye/Tolu Azeez Oloye is a scammer on Instagram pretending to sell female dresses. He will block you after payment. His Palmpay account is 8069572524, and also Ugwu Queendaline, Palmpay 9133753869.

“His MTN WhatsApp number +2347025280615 PLEASE email [email protected] with screenshots as evidence to get his account flagged. The more people report, the better.

“He keeps changing the profile name of his IG account, some of the handles he has used include: wearsnest_ng, enchantress_wear.”

Nairaland post accusing same Instagram page of fraud — The nairaland post

Abiola Olaniyan, an England-based Nigerian, was also scammed by the vendor.

Olaniyan, who shared her ordeal in a Twitter post in December 2022, disclosed that she sent some money to the vendor for a piece of clothing meant for her wedding anniversary.

“I sent money to him/her after negotiation. It was pathetic I ended up being scammed. Based on referral, I sent money to Stephen Oluwatoyin Ajibade, 8168668378, PalmPay. For a week now, my chats and calls have been ignored and [the vendor] even went ahead to block me on IG,” said Olaniyan.