The economic situation in Nigeria nowadays is becoming unbearable that Nigerians are now becoming so desperate in their bid to make money by all means. Greedy people are especially vulnerable to the new scamming techniques cab drivers and their 419 gang have recently adopted. The scheme is more organized and less violent than the ‘one chance’ system.

I didn’t really want to write about it initially but since two of my colleagues have experienced it in a spade of 6 months (one of them twice) I felt I owe it a duty to educate other potential Victims especially Ladies.

It might interest you to know that this syndicate operates right in the city of Abuja especially along the Kubwa expressway. The two colleagues I mentioned had their ordeals on this route. It is important to state that one of them was greedy enough to go all the way and ended up losing all her salary for that month including her house rent, but the other wasn’t that greedy thus miraculously escaped been scammed.

The scammers are usually a gang of four including the driver with at least one woman among. They usually operate in the early hours of the morning or at evening times.

The scam begins with an innocent passenger flagging down a taxi with 3 passengers; one in front and two at the back.

After a short drive with the potential Victim now inside the vehicle with the car going barely 2 kilometer distance, one of the passengers sitting at the back will alert the driver of his or her intention to alight from the vehicle claiming he/she has arrive at his/her destination.

For the sake of a clear description I will assign letters to each passenger/gang members:

Passenger A: passenger sitting in front with driver

Passenger B: Passenger about to alight

Passenger C: The 3rd passenger usually sitting at the middle.

The Driver and the Victim are the other occupants of the car

Their Scamming Scheme starts with a little drama that looks real to the unsuspecting victim.

Passenger B: Driver I go drop here. Abeg open the booth make I carry my load

The Driver will then break into an outburst: which load? You think say I no see wetin dey inside that bag. Where you get that kain money from? You be thief, I saw the dollars you stashed inside the bag when I dropped the other passenger’s load (referring to a passenger that dropped before the potential victim boarded). Where you get that kain money? I’m driving you straight to the police station

Passenger B: what do you mean? That bag and wetin dey inside na my property. I no be thief

Driver: my friend shut up… na una dey steal our money for this country. You must explain to the police when we get to the station. Shebi you lied to me say na cloth dey inside the bag

Passenger B: Abeg no carry me go police station I go confess…

At this point the other passengers will then try to intervene. The would-be victim also will naturally want to join in the argument and might be tempted having heard that it involves a large sum of money.

Series of interrogation and mediation will then follow from other passengers in the vehicle. Statements like ‘driver abeg try listen to him. He say will confess, let him confess’; ‘How much dey inside the bag’ ‘so oga where did you get the money’; ‘where are you coming from’; where are you going to; what state and tribe are you etc...

The victim will also chip in one or two words: This bring the victim into the whole scheme

Passenger B; I work with a white man that’s into an illegal business and I was able to escape with some of his money totaling up to 1 million US dollars (or pounds as the case may be). Please don’t hand me over to the police. Have mercy on me

DRIVER: Okay I will not hand you over to the police on the condition that you will settle everybody in the car (including the victim)

All the passengers will now respond either by agreeing or disagreeing bearing in mind that the only person whose approval is needed is the victim (All the other passengers will always agree).

At this point the story can take either of two dimensions – The victim either refuse to participate in the money sharing and will be immediately order to get out of the car or agree to participate in the sharing.

The Colleague that escaped been scammed refused the offer and was asked by the driver to get out of the vehicle whereas the other greedy covetous colleague agreed to take part in the sharing.

Her agreeing set the stage for the second and most important phase of the scam.

.........Passenger B will then agree to share the money with the rest people. He will claim the money was charmed by the owner and thus unclean. That he was taking it to a Babalawo (an Herbalist) who agreed to make the money clean by performing certain rituals on it at a cost of about 500,000 naira.

The gang members including the Victim will then drive to a certain location to meet the Babalawo who will insist all present take an Oath not to reveal anything to anyone and not to cheat or short-change any of the participant in the ritual.

He will then request for the cleansing fee before embarking on the process.

At this point Passenger B will claim he only has about a 100,000 naira (400,000 naira short of the money require for the cleansing).

The other passengers and the driver will then be tasked to raise the 400,000 naira with a promise backed by an oath that the person bringing the larger amount gets the bigger share when the money eventually get cleansed.

(My greedy colleague claim some level of hypnosis or Juju is involve at this stage but I doubt it. I think it’s just her sheer greed).As you will expect, Greedy Victims will always want more share and thus go emptying their accounts or even borrowing.
My colleague went to the ATM, withdrew all her salary for that month including money meant for her House rent...

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN...you all can guess how such story will eventually end...
YOU WILL BE LEFT FRUSTRATED AND FEELING STUPID ON ACCOUNT OF YOUR SHEER GREED


COPIED FROM http://puzziehil..com.ng/2016/08/abuja-taxi-scam.html

I love money but I also love to work for it so I can't fall for this.

Still waiting for the abridged version.

charix:
Still waiting for the abridged version.

Abridge version for something this short!!!
na wa o
Nigerians and their Lazy reading habit

Sammieb:

Abridge version for something this short!!! na wa o Nigerians and their Lazy reading habit

Not the OP. Not the abridged version of the story. Opinion read and disregarded.