Fraudsters who defraud people by buying goods with ‘magic’ or ‘mystic money’ are on the prowl in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital. The fraudsters sometimes pretend to be tricycle riders or taxi drivers.

Yesterday, some of them entered a rice shop on Aka- Etinan Road, Uyo and duped a sales girl with alleged ‘magic money’ and succeeded in going away with seven bags of rice without full payment.

The story surprised passers-by. Narrating her ordeal, the sales girl, Rose Etim, from Mbiet Ebe Obio Uyo, said two men came to the shop to purchase 10 bags of rice.
According to her, after telling them a bag of rice was N12,000, the fraudsters paid her N120,000 in N1,000 notes.

Etim said she counted the money before putting it in her pocket but to her shock, the money turned to N100 notes. She said: “It all happened this morning (yesterday) around 11 am.

Two men came in here to buy rice from me.

I told them Ironic tomatoes rice cost N12,000 per bag. They gave me money for 10 bags and I counted the money, it was N120,000 naira. I put the money in my jeans skirt pocket and one of them went and sat in the car while the second one and I started carrying the rice to the vehicle.

“After carrying seven bags to their vehicle, it was as if the money wanted to fall out of my pocket. So, I pulled it out in order to keep it where we used to keep sales money. I now noticed that the money has changed from N1,000 notes to N100 notes.”

Etim said she immediately raised the alarm which drew the attention of neighbours. But, according to her, the men jumped inside their vehicle and zoomed off.

A witness, Mr Ubong Essien, who is a tailor in a nearby shop, confirmed Etim’s story.