Mariam Akinyemi, an Oyo State-based trader, and Babatunde Aleshinloye, a point-of-sale operator (POS), have been scammed out of N96,000 by a yet-to-be-identified man.

FIJ gathered that the incident happened on Friday, March 31, after Mariam received a call from the man.

According to her, the man claimed to be a customer who wanted to get some items from her.

Mariam said she had no reason to suspect foul play because she was used to receiving calls from prospective customers due to her business’ online presence.

“He called saying he saw my advert on Facebook and wanted to get some items from me,” said Mariam.

“He told me he was on his way to my shop but his car got stopped by Vehicle Inspection Officers and he needed to do a money transfer to them.”

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She told FIJ that the man said he needed the help of a PoS operator to help him with the transfer.

Mariam added that she thought to help and she went to Babatunde’s shop to explain the caller’s plight.

“I reached out to Babatunde to speak to the man since he said he needed the help of a PoS operator,” she said.

“I don’t know what they discussed, but I noticed Babatunde made transfers with his PoS machine.

“He then handed over the receipts to me to pay for the transfers.”

According to Mariam, Babatunde sent N48,000 to two different Access Bank account numbers as requested by the caller.

“I never told him to do the transfer. I only told him to talk to the man since he said he needed a PoS operator’s help,” Mariam said.

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FIJ reached out to Babatunde, but his story was different.

Babatunde told FIJ that Mariam had come to his shop that day requesting that he made transfers to a certain man.

“She said she wanted me to do a transfer of N48,000 to the man and that she would pay,” he said.

“Being a regular customer, I didn’t question her, and I made the transfer.

“After I made the transfer, the man asked that I made another N48,000 transfer to a different account number. I told Mariam about it, and she consented.”

Babatunde said her narrative changed after he asked to be paid.

“I gave her the receipts and asked for my money,” he said.

“That was where the issue started. She said she didn’t know the man and didn’t ask me to do the transfers.”

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FIJ learnt that the issue resulted in a court case between both parties as neither agreed to be at fault.

When FIJ tried calling the alleged scammer’s number on Wednesday morning, it was switched off. Messages sent to the number were not responded to.

FIJ’s findings via Truecaller, a smartphone application for caller identification, showed that the number +2349036270855 used by the fraudster was registered with the name ‘Jennifer Solon’.

Note: Fictitious names were used to protect sources.