Sylvia Okon (not real name), a Lagos State resident, was on January 13, 2023, attempting to purchase a flight ticket from Lagos to Mexico.

Her airline of choice was the Turkish Airlines, and her intended flight date was January 29, 2023.

Little did she know that in her bid to purchase her ticket online, she would lose ₦2,766,831 to a fraudster posing as a representative of the Turkish Airlines’ Lagos office.

Recounting her ordeal, Okon told FIJ she believed she was thorough, and felt she was indeed dealing with the company, but she soon discovered a faceless Nigerian had robbed her of her money.

She maintained she wasn’t careless as the contact she paid to was confirmed to her by the company’s customer care representatives.

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“On January 13, I was trying to buy a ticket from Lagos to Mexico,” Okon told FIJ. “I called Turkish Airlines’ customer care located in Türkiye. I couldn’t purchase the ticket from them because I didn’t have an international card, and they couldn’t take payment from a Nigerian card via phone, so a ticket was reserved for me with a reservation number. They asked me to go pay for it in my country.”

It was in her bid to pay for the ticket in Lagos that she fell into the hands of a fraudster who had created an online profile posing as Turkish Airlines.

“I got this Turkish Airlines customer care number on Google, so I thought to look for Turkish Airlines’ Nigerian number on Google too,” Okon continued. “On Google, I got the number 08159652591.

“I sent a message and was told I’d need to pay into the account of an officer in charge because of the naira-to-dollar conversion rate.

“This made me doubt, so I called Turkish Airlines themselves, and their agent gave me the same number, so I was confident to pay.”

She transfered the sum to the Polaris Bank account of one Okegbu David John at 6:17 pm on January 13. The number blocked her afterwards.

Okon said, “Twenty-four hours later, I wasn’t issued my ticket, and then I realised I had been scammed.

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“I went to Turkish Airlines’ office the next day, and they all denied being involved.

“I asked why the number was on their google address, but they said anyone was free to put anything on Google.”

She said she reported to the police and was told they would restrict the account but she had not heard anything after that.

When FIJ called the number Okon transacted with, a female responded but dropped the call after our reporter asked questions. Further calls and a text message were not responded to as of press time.

FIJ also mailed Turkish Airlines, but as of press time, the company was yet to respond.

When FIJ reached the airline’s Twitter help desk, the company said its only Nigerian contact number was +234012771559. FIJ called this number but it was unavailable as of press time.