All Used Household Item, an Instagram page masking itself as a declutter account, collected N125,000 from Christiana Aina (pseudonym), a product designer living in Lagos, and her husband in November for a washing machine. When they figured the agent was fraudulent and sought a refund, he vanished.

Declutter platforms connect buyers looking to purchase used items with sellers who have those items to sell, while they (the declutter vendors) get paid in commission.

Aina said the couple had saved up for the machine. What then erased their doubts about All Home Used Items was the number of followers the page had amassed.

“My husband saw the washing machine advert. We saw that it was cheaper than what we were saving money for,” Aina said.

“We also saw that they have 21,000 followers, so they must be legitimate. In fact, I was even thinking which scammer would do ads?”

These two factors were enough for the couple to commit their N125,000 to the fraudulent page.

Many declutters operate by connecting buyers with the seller only after payment. That measure is how most vendors prevent potential buyers from bypassing commissions meant for the vendors.

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It was after Aina made the payment that the corresponding chain of shocking discoveries started to unfold.

“I called the owner, they didn’t pick up. I told my husband and he reached out to the declutter person. He (the vendor) asked us to call again. When the person picked up, he said we should call him around 7:00 pm,” Aina explained.

“I called by 7:00 pm and he did not pick up again. I kept calling for up to five times. We again complained to the vendor but he told us to try again.

“This time, my husband said I should let him call the number himself. When he tried to call the so-called owner, that was how Truecaller brought out ‘fraudulent declutter’.

“So, we decided to check the declutter vendor’s number. Truecaller also brought out ‘fraudulent declutter’ for his own number.”

EQ’S FINDINGS

While Aina’s experience may not be sufficient to name the vendor a fraudster, some inconsistencies that EQ found might be pointing in that light.

EQ screened through the Instagram page and found that while the account was created in December 2015, the first post on the account was from January 2024. This suggests that the account could have belonged to someone else or was previously used for a different purpose.

Another significant pointer in that light is that the username of the account had been previously changed

What’s more? Comments on the account were limited, which suggests that more victims of this commercial fraud, if any, would have been unable to comment on the page after they had been scammed.

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EQ also posed to attempt buying an iWatch worth N175,000. The vendor, like they told Aina, said EQ must pay the money in full before they would connect EQ to the seller.

The supposed vendor also promised that they would not defraud their customers as they used their personal account number connected to their bank verification number (BVN).

“I use my personal bank account which has my BVN and private info, so I don’t cheat and can’t cheat”

EQ also noticed that the bank account the vendor sent for the wristwatch purchase was totally different from the one they sent to Aina for the washing machine purchase.

The account information for the iWatch purchase was a First Bank account with the name ‘Timothy Eyeku’, while the one sent to Aina for the machine was an Ecobank account with the name ‘Isah Mustapha’.

Another discovery EQ made was that the WhatsApp contact on the Instagram page that Aina and her husband texted was different from the one EQ found on the account on Friday. Although, both carried the same profile picture.

In addition, EQ verified that both the contact of the vendor that Aina texted for the machine and the acclaimed seller indeed had the ‘fraudulent declutter’ Truecaller tag on.

However, the new contact on the page as of Friday carried the name ‘Ene Bong.’

When EQ asked the vendor about Aina’s case, they vowed not to have scammed the couple. The vendor also told this reporter to text them on Instagram where they would show the screenshots of their conversation with Aina.

As EQ would later find out, the request to message them on Instagram was a ploy to block this reporter from further interaction with the Instagram account.
The post ‘All Used Household Items’ Vanishes With Couple’s N125,000 in Instagram Declutter Scheme appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.