I've always heard of online scams but I never really gave it much thought as neither me nor anyone close to me had been affected by it, until some weeks back. It came as a big surprise when my friend called me, asking to find out if I knew any police officer I could direct her to as she had been duped. I told her I didn't but we could go to the police station together to file a report. We met the next morning and on our way to the police station she narrated her ordeal.
About two weeks earlier she had seen e-books advertised by a website and after contacting the seller and coming to an agreement with him, he sent her his account details and she did an online transfer immediately but since then, she had not been able to contact him as he had stopped replying all her messages. I was pissed and surprised because my friend buys a lot of things online and she wasn't a novice who could just get played.

On getting to the police station, we filed a complaint providing the bank account details of the seller and after a lot of questioning we finally convinced them. Things moved at snail’s pace and after a very hectic two weeks the seller was finally arrested. The seller on getting to the police station denied knowing my friend. He said he doesn’t sell books and even went ahead to show us his site where he advertised men's wears.
The site he showed us was not the one my friend had ordered the e-books from and the situation was getting all twisted. On my way home that day, I decided to research on online scams and that was when I came across the MIM (Man-in-middle) scam.

Man-In-The-Middle scam popularly called MIM or MITM involves a middle man in your transaction, one who is there to wreak havoc.
Here is a scenario, let’s call the scammer MITM

MITM requests to buy 30 pairs of shoes which costs
N150,000 from a legit seller and chooses to pay via bank transfer.
He puts a random item (e.g a laptop) up for sale for N150,000 on social media or on a website.
He asks the buyer to make payment to a bank account and he sends the account details of the shoe seller.
The laptop buyer pays N150,000 into the account of the shoe seller unknowingly.
The shoe seller, gets a credit alert and delivers the goods to MITM.

MITM vanishes, the laptop buyer has reached out to his bank and the police to track down the owner of the account he paid into.
Well, my friend must have paid into the account he (MITM) sent to her while she thought she was paying for e-books advertised by him (MITM). Apparently, she was paying for men's wears ordered by the MITM; wears the seller maintained he had sent after he (the seller) received the alert.

The case dragged for a while without any suitable solution being proffered and eventually, the case was closed as the stress of going to the police station daily was taking its toll on my friend. My friend forfeited her money after going through the whole stress; she didn't get the e-books or her money back.

Source: https://blog.lockmycash.com/the-man-in-the-middle-scam-beware/

A background check on most sites offering up products for sale can actually save you the stress of being scammed.

Nice information..something people can actually learn from

Anywhere you see www.helperforum.org. Just pick your slippers and run for your dear life. You are warned

saaedlee:
A background check on most sites offering up products for sale can actually save you the stress of being scammed.

Yea, true but a lot of people are unaware of these measures. Also, these scammers keep coming up with new methods everytime.

fijiano202:
Nice information..something people can actually learn from

Thank you!

wokemzine:
Anywhere you see www.helperforum.org. Just pick your slippers and run for your dear life. You are warned

Oops! Was it a MITM scam?

Seun, Lalasticlala let's get people informed

Any site without pay on delivery option is a no no for me.