The Day a Scammer Used Our School as an Alibi

Through the years I've had encounter with scammers who are either trying to scam me or those around me, and these doesn't just happen online, same as played out physically. And overtime since I joined hive Blockchain I've written about lots of these scam experiences, both those targeted at me and those towards friends and those around me, from Facebook scammers, to binance, bybit scammers and many others to name but few. But today I'll like to share about a scam experiences that happen physically in broad day light at my work place, so without further ado get a popcorn and let delve into it together.

That faithful day was just like every other day at work, being a school environment, most staffs; that's teachers are in the classroom teaching the students, while others are in the staff room waiting for their period while doing other things. While still in the morning, someone elegantly dressed walked into the principal office with a young lady, who we later learned was a sale girl in a store that sells food items such as rice, beans and others In bunk. The elegantly dressed man walked into the principal office with the message that he was sent by the state government to give reach schools 10 bags of rice as palliative to cushion the effect of high cost of living.

Apparently, the man had first visited the store where the sales girl work to order 10 bags of rice, that he's taking it to our school and since the store is quite close to the store, the owner allowed the man carried the rice, while assigning her sales girl to follow him so as to collect payment at our school. But when they got to our school, only the man went inside the principal office, while the girl was asked to wait at the waiting room of the principal office by the man, meaning the girl had no ideal of what the man was discussing with our principal, neither did our principal know what he discussed with the girl outside.

During the conversation with our principal, the principal did thank the man, but requested for an official letter that backed up the distribution of the palliative, and the man said he forgot it inside his car, and took permission to go get it. On leaving the principal office, he told the girl he's coming when he saw her in the waiting room. Immediately he stepped out of the building, he went into his car and drove off, on getting to the school gate, the gateman Inspected his car, but since the car only contains the bag of rice he came in with, the gateman didn't stop him since he knows nothing about the conversation that happened in the principal office.

It was after about 30 minutes to an hour, when the sale girl waited and didn't see the man came back to the office, did she step out to go check him and didn't see him, she then called her boss to notify her about what's happening, the boss came in less an a minute shouting about how the school has collided with a scammer to steal her goods. After causing lost of drama and uproar in the school premises with no rectification. Went when to report the school, especially the principal to the police and our principal was immediately called and invited to the police station, unfortunately immediately she's done writing her statement, she wasn't allowed to leave the police station, instead she was locked behind the counter.

Even the senior officer of the quality assurance that came to plead on her behalf was locked up, when he came. At the end of the school had to shoulder the responsibility of paying for 5 bags of rice, and this was a time when a bag of rice was sold for above hundred thousand naira. It was after the payment was made that they let our principal and the other senior officer go. This was an eye opener at the time, because the principal knew nothing about the scam being carried out, using the school name and her office being visited as an alibi to pin her to the crime being committed, because the store owner and her sales girl kept on insisting that the scammer not only use our school name, but also came into the school and spoke with our principal for over ten minutes.

I'm sure the store owner also learnt her lesson, because she had to short the loss of the other five bags of rice that wasn't paid for.

Unfortunately in the end we went able to recover what was lost because no one knows the man in question, he probably came from a distance place, studied the environment before initiating his plans.

All photos are generated using ChatGpt.