"My Painful Experiences with 2 Job Scammers"

The first one happened around 2005/2006. I had just finished serving (NYSC). I saw the job advert on a Newspaper in the job adverts section. It was for Business Development Officer in this company. The name of the company was First United Company.

I sent my CV to their email address and they said they would be conducting an online test for me. They sent me the questions and the questions were quite impressive...as in...looked like real job test questions to me. When I mailed my answers to them they replied that I had passed and was going to get the job....but I would need to pay N1,000 for something. I can't remember if it was acceptance fee or training fee, but they wanted me to pay that cash to proceed with them. When I told my Dad about it, he told me to forget it that it was a scam...but with the advert on Newspaper, the impressive job test though online, I just felt like going ahead so I actually travelled from Sapele to Benin to pay into their account in First Atlantic Bank...a Bank that existed at that time. I think this also got me...as in, if they were fake, how would they have a bank account and their name is also similar to the name of the Bank. Maybe it was a subsidiary or related firm to the Bank.... I was really thinking like an employment market JJC.

After I made the payment, training started. Online of course. It was one funny kind of PowerPoint slide like this. Something anybody could have copied and pasted from the Internet.

 Well, I was the one looking for a job so I downloaded the training and went through it. By the way, I think I had started applying for bank jobs at this time. I wrote GTB, Oceanic, Intercontinental, First Bank, in fact I think it's only Nigerian Police Force Micro-Finance Bank test that I didn't write and it was probably because I didn't know such a bank existed. 

Well, back to the story. After the training, they opened an email address for me and told me something strange. Around this time my Dad asked me to find out from them where their office was. As an obedient son I did and guess what their reply was? They said I did not need to bother about that and that it was an online job. They said I would never have need to work from their office. This time, the tone of their reply was quite harsh. Hmmm! My eyes started getting clearer. 

But there was something quite shocking that I saw. They sent me a picture of a youth corps member standing beside a banner with an advert on it. They said they wanted me to print out a banner like that and put my email address on it. It was something like when people respond to that advert via my email, I would send their account number to them and after people pay into their account, they would give me a percentage of what they pay.

Kai! The first thing that came to my mind was "it is good to listen to your Father". 

My brother and sister, at this point I did not need any prophet or Angel to tell me anything. I decided to continue writing bank tests. 

I have written this true life story of mine to inform you and also help somebody who may need it. If there is anyway such scammers can be tracked down and prosecuted that will be great too.

I will tell you my second experience soon. It was more painful. It was around 2016/ 2017. Please buy 2 handkerchiefs. One for you and one for me. We would need it. Haha!

.......to be continued.