Scammers are now exploiting the alarming rate of unemployment in Nigeria as a bait to defraud unsuspecting Nigerians.

Someone who almost fell victim of the scamming method posted a full detail of how it happened on here Facebook page.

Read it here.

I’ve never felt this vulnerable all my life! I was preparing for work early in the morning when this call came in. The man, who introduced himself as Ibrahim Aminu (08180332846), had read one of our health tips and wanted to know how his fat wife could lose weight.

He forwarded his email address ([email protected]) so I could send any relevant write-up/links to him. Immediately after the first text message, another one came in, asking me to forward three names and phone numbers of anyone in need of job to him between the 9am call and 11am.

They were also to call him. Well, with an Arik Air email and another call from him informing me that Arik was recruiting massively following mass resignations, it wasn’t too hard to believe that he was simply being nice. I sent three names, two of them my husband’s nephews and one young girl in the church. Aminu called to say two of the candidates had OND and were therefore unqualified, leaving him with one of my brothers in-law. He called about four times to affirm the urgency.

After each call, I followed up with calls to my in-law. Applicants normally get free round-trip tickets to venue of the interview in Abuja, but this time, free tickets had been expended and my in-law would have to buy his tickets to Abuja, to be reimbursed after everything. We gave him N60k for tickets and incidentals, to be repaid later. The calls and instructions from Aminu became intense but reassuringly gentle.

He would also give the applicant a contact to call when he reaches Abuja, etc. But, I started feeling uneasy about the unsolicited kindness and the intensity of the calls and instructions. I called my in-law to know the account details he was to pay the ticket fare to: GTBank, Mrs. Agbo H. Agabi, A/c number 0110002720 (Head, Ticketing & Reservations Arik Airline) Lagos.

Of course, the young man is no fool, so he was reluctant to pay and he was about calling me when I called him. Well, to the glory of God, my money is back in my bank account and I apologised to the young man for the early morning trauma. Aminu eventually knew that the game was up and has probably gone in search of other victims. Meanwhile, the two official email addresses on Arik website are: [email protected] and [email protected]. So sad.