A prominent online chef, Nam, has given details of how she was almost scammed by a gang that has been offering contracts to Nigerians online.
The detailed story, which was confirmed by some others who had been contacted by the gang, was given on X.
Another X user, Teemar, said the same set of fraudsters got in touch with her three years ago,
Nma, who is a food content creator based in Abuja, wrote: “So I got a call from this number 0704 457 9909 saying his name is Alhaji Abdulfatai Mohammed that’s he’s a customer from X, he said his been trying to reach me but my line wasn’t going through and that he left the Country last week Friday and there’s a food contract he will like me to handle because he likes my food and will want me to handle the contract, I said no problem sir.
“He said he will forward a number to me to call, the lady will give me further details regarding the contract and also make payment. I said no problem sir.
“He sent me the number = 0802 358 0554 – Mrs Ononuga Coker. I called the lady, informing her that I’m from Alhaji, she said okay, that their company is having a 3 days program (Wednesday – Friday) and the will need me to supply 1500 packs of takeaway (500 packs per day), the food content – jollof/plantain/chicken/beef/chivita/water per person, she requested that I draft out quotation and send over I said okay ma. I called her back and asked if she can give me till tomorrow to send the quotation as I don’t want to rush and give the wrong quotation, she said no problem.
“I started making enquiries regarding price of items, bag of rice, carton of chicken etc called a friend of mine who will help me with the cooking for us to draft the quotation together, we both did everything together.
“In all of this I was really doubting if I can actually pull off this contract, I had to reach out to my head chef (where I did my culinary training) that same night and she advice me to not be afraid, if you can do it, no problem but if you can’t let them know, it’s better to not do it than to do it and fail, we spoke at a length and it was really helpful and encouraging.
“In the morning, I and my friend worked on the final quotation and the total amount was 8.2m plus for everything,
“I called Mrs Ononuga to please send me her WhatsApp number to forward the quotation but she said no that I should text it to her and give her 30min then call back which I did and to my greatest surprise she said my quotation has been approved, no negotiations, no questioning, nothing at all which was not normal.
“Now this is where the scamming started coming in.
“She said the lady that do cook for them before always bring a certain kind of sanitization for events like that and they do share the profit together and she will be needing 10gallons of the sanitizer (hmmmm, what is sanitizer doing inside cooking and how is that even any of my business I said to myself, okay) she said she will forward a number to me, that I should call the person and find out how many gallon he has available, I said okay.
“She sent me the number with the company name saying he’s a pastor and the marketing manager of ESTEED NIGERIA LIMITED – 07064381703 (Pst Peter Ayodele).
“I called the number (of course he greeted as the pastor he claimed to be ) I told him Mrs Onunuga instructed me to contact him regarding a sanitization (told him not quite sure what that is) and to find out how many gallons he have available, he said he has about 500gallons available and each gallon is sold for 155,000, I said okay that I will get back to him.
“I started feeling off about the whole thing because we should be talking about making payment for the food since the quotation has been approved but you never asked for my account details.
“I requested for more information regarding the program , where the company is and what time I’m to deliver but no response from her. I called my friend and told her that I feel like this whole thing is a scam, it doesn’t feel right and why am I contacting someone for sanitizer.
“I then remembered that Mrs Ononuga sent me a company name, I decided to google it and see if the company was real, the first thing I saw was ESTEED NIG LIMITED – FRAUD/SCAM, I opened it and I couldn’t believe what I was reading, same tactic to dupe people.
“I read through and I saw where a lady narrating her experience made mention of the same amount that the same pastor told her told me too and the name of the sanitizer is SOLEN, I was never told the name of the sanitizer so I called pastor Peter back to request for the name of of course he said SOLEN (I laughed) and said okay sir I will get back to you.
“Now I’ve read through and have seen how they operate. I called Mrs Ononuga to give her my feedback from the pastor, she asked that I request for sample (I laughed because I know that’s the next thing 😂 and when I do request for sample, pastor Peter will say they don’t give out samples again as people take it to make adulterated product of it, which means we will have to buy a full gallon and Mrs Ononuga will want to make payment but probably lie that she doesn’t want her company to know it’s from her or she’s having network issue and will ask me to make the payment, they will add it up to my food money 😂😂😂, and me now seeing a deal of 8.2m that I don’t want to lose will foolishly go and make payment 😂😂, but thank God I’ve never focused on money when doing business but only to deliver my best, that’s my first priority) I told her but ma I don’t have any business with any sanitizer, mine is to cook and deliver to you ma, if you need the sanitizer you have the man’s number why not contact him for it directly, immediately she started saying never mind never mind, forget it forget it and she dropped the call.
“I called pastor Peter back telling him that I was asked to request for sample, I also made mention to him that I saw on the internet that this his company ESTEED NIG LIMITED is being tagged fraud/scam, that’s how pastor Peter started calling me ashawo, ashawo and all sorts of names and ended the call.
“Now here’s the thing, they will bring huge deals for small rising business owners that you will find it really hard to not look at the amount that will be hitting your account when the deal is finalized and when you send your quotations without negotiation they will approve it, then they will bring in this part that will make you want to pay for an item that is not your business because you don’t want to lose the deal they’re bringing for you. The whole deal wasn’t making any sense to me that’s why I googled and found out that they’re scammers.
“Be alert when making deals with people and please beware of ESTEED NIG LIMITED, they are scammers.
“If I had let greed in I wouldn’t have known what I know now about them. Please be careful Y’all.”
Teemar, responding to Nma, wrote: “The exact same people called me about 3 years ago saying they want me to do makeup and Gele with nails for about 150 people. Excitement wan wound me🤣
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“But wait 150 people ke where dem dey go laise training 😂 I started getting pissed when she started mentioning hand sanitizer bla bla bla shouldn’t we be talking about makeup ni?😂
“You need to see the way I swear give them. Awon werey they never call back na my credit pain me pass I was so pissed😂😂😂.
“Babe you even stayed long burning your credit. I’m not that patient.”
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