Published 2nd Jun, 2022

By Joseph Adeiye

Lanre Makinde, an Oyo State-based teacher, has narrated how a fraudster hacked his Facebook profile and used it to defraud one of his friends on May 27.

Makinde told FIJ that a day before the fraud was committed, the impostor had taken over his Facebook account.

“The fraudster hacked my Facebook account on May 26. Since then, he has been using it to promote fraudulent business ventures amongst my contacts,” Makinde said.

“All efforts to retrieve the account were unsuccessful as he had quickly changed the settings. He also quickly blocked some of my friends who challenged him on the platform.”

Makinde said the fraudster would eventually succeed in using his profile to defraud Gloria Ese, his close friend, of N90,000.

While posing as Makinde during their interaction on the platform, the impostor introduced a fake investment scheme to Ese, persuading her to commit a respectable capital to it so she could get a huge interest in return.

Ese told FIJ that she initially had doubts about the scheme the impostor had pitched but decided to invest because of the trust she had for Makinde.

“He introduced me to a business and showed me evidences of return on investment during our interaction. I thought it was Brother Makinde that was interacting with me,” Ese said.

“Because of the trust I had for Brother Makinde, I decided to go along with the investment. He then gave me the account number to send the money to. He said whatever amount I send would be doubled through the investment. I then sent him N20,000 to receive a total of N40,000 after some hours.”

After a while, the impostor reached out to Ese again and advised her to increase the capital she had deposited to stand a chance of realising more returns on it.

When Ese started asking questions, the impostor told her to trust him.

“I borrowed a N30,000 quick loan from my bank and told him that he would repay me if anything went wrong. He then told me that a pastor was involved in the investment, and that they would never dupe me. He also sent me a video of people who had sent him capitals and received returns,” Ese said.

Ese told FIJ that she ended up sending more money three different times, thinking she was still chatting with Makinde.

In the end, she sent a total of N90,000 to the impostor.

Apart from the quick loan she borrowed from her bank, she also borrowed money from her sister.

“I also sent some money belonging to my mother to him without her knowledge. I thought I was about to surprise her with a ‘clever move’. I did not know I was dealing with a fraudster.”

Ese said she later asked the impostor for a progress report when the promised profit was not delivered on time but was told to be patient.

After waiting for a whole day without receiving any interest, she finally decided to contact Makinde on phone.

“It was as if the medicine he used on me had suddenly lost its potency. When I sent a text message to Brother Makinde to demand for the money I sent, he told me his profile had been hacked since Thursday,” Ese said.

“That was how I lost N90,000 to a fraudster.”

FIJ confirmed that the phone numbers the impostor used in perpetrating the fraud were registered in the name ‘Umar Nabingi’. The impostor also used a Keystone Bank account belonging to Aliu Taiye Paul to receive the funds before absconding.

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