Published 13th Aug, 2022

By Omolabake Ohu

An Instagram vendor with the handle ‘Fashion Beauty World’ has been accused of defrauding her unsuspecting customers of thousands of naira on the pretext of selling fashion accessories.

Bolanle Aduragbemi, one of Fashion Beauty World’s victims, told FIJ that she had ordered for some bags from the vendor on August 7 with the agreement that the bags would be delivered to her the following day.

“Before now, I had been following her on Instagram, and I had been seeing her advertise her products. After seeing her adverts, I wanted to patronise her, and I eventually did on that day,” Aduragbemi said.

She said the vendor claimed she was running promo sales and that the bags she desired would be sold for N21,000, with a N2,000 delivery fee.

“I transferred N20,000 from my Zenith Bank account and the remaining N3,000 in my GT Bank account to her immediately,” she said.

“When I didn’t get the delivery the following day as she had promised, I sent the vendor a message, asking her why I had not received my order, but she didn’t respond. I tried calling her but her line was also switched off,” Bolanle said.

“Since the account number the vendor gave to me only carried a business name, I tried finding out her real name on Facebook.

“I informed my friend about the incident and she connected me with a Sterling Bank employee who subsequently found that the vendor’s account number was not attached to Sterling Bank.

“The account number, on the other hand, is linked to a GO wallet account, and this is what the vendor uses to perpetrate fraud.”

Aduragbemi said she also sent the vendor several messages on WhatsApp but did not get any response.

“So I went through her Instagram page to read all her reviews. I messaged her, accusing her of fake reviews, but she later blocked me, both on Instagram and WhatsApp. She also hid her comments on Instagram from me,” she said.

“I messaged two people who liked one of her posts on Instagram, and one of them told me that she was equally waiting for the vendor to deliver the things she bought from her.”

When FIJ sent a message to the vendor via Instagram, she said, “If I were you, I would not be so stupid.”

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