It was mid December and the usual seasonal rush was on. Employees doing all they could to ensure their employers were happy enough to give them the needed extra to make the Christmas holiday more pleasant.

Kachi was self-employed and wasn’t expecting any Christmas bonus from anyone. He was an estate agent anticipating the next real estate deal that would enable him give his family a wonderful Christmas treat.

Sitting in his Lagos Island office that morning and wondering where his next transaction would come from, his phone rang. It was Malik one of the agents he had worked with on a property sale deal about a year ago. He had a business proposal and he wanted to meet up with him.

They agreed to meet at Chicken Republic. The business proposal was that his fiancé’s brother living in Saudi Arabia needed to build a chain of hotels in Nigeria, preferably in Lagos state and was looking for someone who could manage the whole process of obtaining the land and engaging engineers to work on the project. Malik told him that he had shifted his focus to the Oil and Gas sector, otherwise he would have worked on it himself.

Kachi couldn’t believe his ears. He wasn’t anticipating anything this big. “This is huge man!” He screamed in delight. “This must be a miracle!” He thought to himself. Malik then promised that he would send his number to the client in Saudi Arabia and gave the needed assurances that the client would call to confirm the business proposal later that evening.

Kachi’s joy knew no bounds as he called up Muyiwa, his partner at the office.

“This is the deal Kachi!” Muyiwa exploded in excitement.

“No!” Kachi responded immediately. “This is the real big deal!”

Together they both started making plans and drawing up schedules on how they were going to proceed on the big project.

The client’s call came, he introduced himself as Chief Umadi and the business proposal was confirmed as earlier stated by Malik. He wanted the property to be located in a choice location on the Island. He asked that the architectural drawings, Bill of Quantity and copies of the Title Deed of the proposed land to be purchased, be sent to him. He promised the funds would be transferred accordingly.

Immediately, Kachi and his partner set to work. They searched aggressively for a very large and suitable piece of land for the hotel. They combed areas in Lekki axis for availability of large expanse of land, spoke to numerous real estate agents, made calls to real estate companies, met and negotiated with several landowners, stayed up all night at the office searching frantically through the pages of “Castle Magazine” for available large plots of land for sale. They eventually discovered a ten plot of land in close proximity to Chevron Drive in Lekki axis.

Immediately, Kachi communicated this to the client. Chief Umadi seemed impressed at the prompt response. He promised to send an advance payment of 550,000 US Dollars to secure the land. He insisted that they use the money to effect payment for the land first while money for development would be sent in another two weeks.

He also expressed his fears and wanted to know if he could trust Kachi and his partner. He reiterated that the money constituted his life savings, which he said needed to be invested quickly in Nigeria. He also mentioned he was on the brink of a divorce with his Saudi Arabian wife who he feared might end up challenging him over his assets. He urgently needed to move his funds to Nigeria for investments.

With all the trust issues trashed out and settled, the other problem was that he could not send the huge amount of money through the conventional means because his wife had highly placed bank contacts who may expose his transfers to her.

He rather insisted that with the help of a special courier agent the funds would be professionally packaged in a parcel tagged computer accessories and sent via airfreight. He promised to provide the contact of a senior custom officer named Sadiq, who would assist in the process of clearing the parcel. Chief Umadi then added that to enable to work move faster he would make the advance payment a round figure of 1,000,000 US Dollars.

Kachi and his partner were ecstatic at this news that they quickly went window-shopping in various car shops. Kachi chose a “Range Rover Vogue” while Muyiwa chose a “Toyota Prado Jeep.” Their wives weren’t left out in the excitement, as they also got involved in window-shopping, all in anticipation of the money from the big deal.

Konga and Jumia online shops were not spared as the two women placed endless orders for the most recent and fashionable clothes, shoes and accessories.

A call came in from the custom officer as promised by Chief Umadi. He informed Kachi that the goods were due to arrive late in the evening . He added that from information getting to him, it would attract a duty fee of N56,500.00k.

Kachi and Muyiwa wasted no time in making the payment into an account number that was provided. After payment was duly executed, they met Sadiq and he confirmed the arrival of the goods by presenting them with some custom documents to that effect.

They were then asked to come back the following day for the parcel. By this time, it was just a few days to Christmas and Kachi and Muyiwa couldn’t help feeling that this was going to be the best Christmas ever.

They arrived at the airport and waited patiently at the lobby. Sadiq the Custom Officer appeared and announced that there was a slight problem; the person in charge of inspecting the goods was demanding that they pay the sum of N500,000.00k or the parcel will be opened.

Knowing the full implications of opening the parcel, Kachi and Muyiwa decided to negotiate for a lesser amount. The Head of Inspection through Sadiq eventually accepted their offer of N350,000. They offered this amount as this was all they had in their business account (a tenant in a property they were managing for an offshore client recently deposited this money in their business account).

They jointly agreed that it was wise to use the money as they were soon expected to be rich in a matter of minutes. They headed straight to the bank to withdraw it.

All these while, as the negotiation was heating up, Chief Umadi was in constant communication and was carried along as the events unfolded.

They returned from depositing the money at the bank and waited at the lobby. They called Sadiq who asked them to hold on that the man had seen the alert and was authorizing the release of the parcel.

Minutes passed into hours. The wait was triggered anxiety and worry. Two hours later, Sadiq wasn’t responding to his calls again neither was he anywhere to be found. Chief Madi’s phone lines immediately became unreachable as well as Malik the go between.

At this point, sweat broke out from their bodies as they realized that a syndicate might have duped them. Kachi couldn’t believe his eyes. He had just been duped!

“The client’s rent money is gone!” Screamed Muyiwa as the two men stared at each other in total disbelief. They started running around searching in vain for Sadiq.

They were helpless and highly disappointed. Their hopes were dashed against a wall. All expectations of buying their dream cars and living the good life was a mirage. It was a sad Christmas for both families as they suffered a terrible loss and trauma.

There was no Chief Madi who was a rich businessman living in Saudi Arabia neither was there a custom officer by the name Sadiq. Malik was used to connect the fraudsters to the victims. The REAL BIG DEAL was all FRAUD!

 

Think carefully through business proposals………….BEWARE OF FRAUDSTERS!

 

Stay Inspired!


Cc: lalasticlala, Mynd44, obinoscopy, Seun

Nice one by Ife!

Nice one ever

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