Desmond Elo Bright has all the ingredients to pose as a successful business coach with a substantial following on Instagram and an appearance of affluence.

Bright’s socials suggesting that he resided in Belgium, in the northwestern part of Europe, was the cherry on the icing.

To Ani Emeka, a businessman from Onitsha, Bright was living the dream. Emeka told FIJ that he had decided to invest in any ‘legitimate hustle’ that would guarantee him such ‘money’.

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On March 4, Emeka sent a total of N2,190,000 (around $3,000) in bitcoin to Bright in exchange for a Shopify account. Bright had always advertised the digital marketplace as one of the services he rendered to people.

Bright claimed to assist people to open a Shopify account to widen their market. Emeka saw this as an opportunity that he could seize for his own business.

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“It was on March 4 this year,” Emeka started.

“I had already been following Dessyhandsum — this is his brand name — for some months before then. I was captivated, I mean, he looked like he was wealthy.

“We got talking. After negotiating for a bit, I agreed to send him payment in bitcoin. He requested that I paid $3000. He only took bitcoin payment. He said it was safer and we did not have to worry about exchange rate and whatnot. He even promised to also run ads for my wears after he opens an account. I sent him the bitcoin equivalent of the cost, about 0.13BTC,” Emeka explained.

Against Emeka’s expectations, Bright started to give him the cold shoulder a few hours after the transaction was confirmed.

“After he confirmed the transaction, he suddenly stopped replying my messages. He first started to give me excuses. Then after about three days of calling, his messages came off more aggressively,” Emeka told FIJ.

“He told me I was stupid, that I should forget about the money. He eventually blocked me off his WhatsApp. I used another number to text him. He also blocked me on the other number.”

Realising that he had been swindled and cut off, Emeka took to Facebook to confront Bright about his actions.

“When I texted him on Facebook, he claimed to have forgotten that we had a deal. He even asked me to send me more bitcoin for him to run ads for me. I was sure he was a swindler now. I stopped texting him and looked him up on Facebook. Apparently, he had scammed other people too,” Emeka explained.

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Emeka told FIJ that he tried different approaches to appeal to Bright to uphold his end of the agreement.

“After formal communication failed, I tried appealing to his emotions and his pride. I said I didn’t care about what people said about him. When he did not budge, I vowed that I’d always call him out whenever I can,” Emeka said.

Meanwhile, FIJ gathered that Shopify does not require any technical knowledge to use as a service. The software as a service (SaaS) is designed for users to customise by themselves. FIJ also gathered that even the pricing for Shopify can be customised for specific businesses, depending on the user.

Finally, FIJ’s findings revealed that Bright — under the brand tag of Dessyhandsum — had been accused of similar heists on multiple occasions, by different people and on different platforms.

On Monday, FIJ reached out to Bright through text and calls. He did not acknowledge the calls or reply the messages.