Published 2nd Jun, 2022

By Emmanuel Uti

Nnamdi Eribenne, a Lagos-based bar manager, has narrated how Lupen NG, an e-commerce automotive platform, defrauded him of N700,000 in April.

Eribenne told FIJ that he reached out to Lupen NG on Instagram when he saw an advert from the company that promised a meaningful car loan offer during the period.

“Lupen NG posted that people could get any car of their choice if they had 20 percent of the price with them. The remaining 80 percent would be provided by the company after a repayment plan had been drawn,” Eribenne said.

The bar manager added that the company sent him its requirements after he had sent them an email to register his interest in the offer.

“Their first requirement then was for me to send an ID card, which I did. They then requested for my account statement and afterwards, asked me to send a picture of the car I wanted to buy. It was a 2009 Camry which sold for N3.5 million,” he said.

Eribenne also told FIJ that Lupen NG later instructed him to open a Paga account and pay N700,000 into it.

“A Lupen NG representative then sent me a link that reflected a N2.8 million account balance. According to him, the balance would remain inaccessible to me until I make the N700,000 payment,” Eribenne said.

“They also asked me to upgrade my Paga account from KYC level one, which is the default, to KYC level three, so that I could deposit up to N5 million or more into it. I did like they asked me to do.

“As soon as I upgraded my Paga account, I told Lupen NG. They then sent me an email link to their domain with my name attached to it, asking me to change my password on it.

“After this, they asked me to go to my Paga account and change the Yahoo mail address I initially used in opening the account to a Paga mail.”

Eribenne said after he changed his mail address on his Paga app, Lupen NG asked him to credit his account with the N700,000 it requested for.

After making the payment, the Lupen NG representatives asked him to ‘wait for 30 minutes’.

However, after waiting endlessly for the company to contact him, he decided to reach out to them again.

“When I reached out again, they stopped picking my calls.” he said.

“I then checked my Paga app and discovered that the N700,000 they told me to deposit had been withdrawn. They have refused to take my calls till date. Their name is now Autocar NG on Instagram,” he said.

On May 30, FIJ had alerted the public on how the fraudulent company changed its name from Lupen NG to Autocar NG, in a bid to further defraud people.

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