Hello dear steemians, it is your favorite blogger @dee-y again. So for this post I will be telling a story of how I almost got scammed. This idea was drawn from @swissclive post on how she was scammed 45 years ago.

While I wasn't actually scammed because i realized it before it was too late, it is still worth telling as this goes to show that no one, I mean no one is to be trusted.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

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I attend the church mountain of fire (MFM), and I belong to the choir group there, mostly because I love singing and i seek to improve my talent. I do hope to become a full time music artist someday!. It was at this choir group that I made a few extra friends. I am not the friend kind of guy so I hardly associate much with people but because of the music passion that we all shared, I was willing to make a change. Among the friends I made was Deji. Deji is the kind of guy who always brings life into the room. He is always outspoken and very charitable because he gives freely without seeking for anything in return most of the time. Deji and two of my other friends, all from the choir would sometimes go out and have fun, watch movies, eat chicken, and generally hang out. I was more closer to Deji compared to the other guys so I knew some things about him that the other guys didn't know.

Things like how he usually quarrels with his mother and she would go around begging pastors to help her talk to him because he would leave the house after such quarrels and won't come back home till like a week or two weeks later. On such occasions, I called him one day and inquired from him his whereabouts and he told me he was in another state, that he would call me as soon as he was around. And truly when he got back he called me and we decided to meet. I would ask him where he went and he would wave the question off in an attempt to change the topic. When I became persistent, he opened up his wallet for me to see and i saw lots of cash inside, newly minted notes.

I asked him how he acquired it and he told me that he can't tell me unless i agree to join him.

I had finished my secondary school then and awaiting admission into the university. The funny thing was I had been waiting for a whole year and didn't get accepted into any institution. I was kind of desperate for money so I said yes to his offer.

NO YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE

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Deji told me that he usually moves weed and other illegal drugs from state to state. He is like a transporter of the drugs and he gets paid heavily for it because there were dangers involved. He told me of his ordeal concerning this round he had just come from, how the guys he was supposed to be delivering the drugs to tried to outsmart him by wanting to collect the drugs when they had no money. He told me they pointed a gun at him and asked him to drop his bag (the one containing the merchandise). I was quite amazed because I had not seen a gun before up close, yet here was someone I call my friend telling me one had been pointed at him. I asked him what he would do now that he had lost the drugs and he laughed. He then told me that

he was smarter than them and that he was prepared. I asked how and he brought out one small wood with a red rope tied around it... (it pretty much looked like charm to me). He said he used this to disappear when they pointed the gun at him. I was looking at him because I did not believe a word he was saying but he seemed to believe every word that came out of his own mouth.

In my entire life I have never seen a charm before, except in movies which I know isn't real. The fact is am a Christian and I don't even believe in all those things. Magic, voodoo and the likes, I call the illusions. That's the best explanation I have for them and am okay with the explanation.

He also asked me to swear first, and chew a cola before he would tell me another means he used to make money. He said after chewing the cola, I wasn't allowed to tell anyone about what he would have told me, and that if I did I was at a risk of running mad or actually dieing. I was of course reluctant at first, how can I eat what I don't know or where it has been. He said if I didn't eat he wouldn't tell, i was desperate so I ate it believing that nothing will happen to me.

WELCOME TO THE GAME

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He told me the business was spearheaded by his elder brother who happened to live in Lagos, we were in Abuja. He said that what they did was Yahoo yahoo as it is popularly known. That his brother had a lot of clients he collects money from regularly. I asked him how?, he said his brother basically assumes the life of a white person on Facebook (identity theft), collects all the pictures and details from the real Facebook account and creates a new Facebook account with almost the same name but with a few changes.

He uses this account to attract white women who are desperate for affection and needy. He would chat with them for almost a year gaining their trust and when the time is right, he takes all the money they have with a funny and pathetic excuse he must have given them and elopes into thin air. This was not even the hot part.

Deji also told me that his brother has some other big clients he deals with, mostly business investors. That he would propose a diamond sale to them and then use charm, or voodoo ad you might call it to get them to accept his offer without any proper verification before wiring the money to him. They would have wired the money before they realized they had just been duped.

I just stood as I watched him in bewilderment, how can this small boy know so much and be involved in such dangerous things. Honestly I agreed to join him, I won't lie to you, but am glad I didn't go through with it.

SCHOOL SAVES THE DAY

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Fortunately for me i gained admission into the university that year and had to go live on campus so I wasn't seeing much of Deji. Evil company truly as they say corrupts good manners. Deji would call me while I was in school to ask if u would be available for a job (moving drugs) but I would somehow manage to give him an excuse.

I even forgot to tell you guys that he told his elder brother about me wanting to join and the elder brother called me on my cell with an international number. I mean i knew this guy was in Lagos, so this must be how he communicates with his clients.

Eventually Deji stopped disturbing me and I was grateful for that. I mean I though i had sold my soul to the devil when i ate the cola he gave me. He and i didn't communicate either till i had graduated from the University. At this point i was well into my music career and had started doing studio recordings so you know it's pretty serious.

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW IS BETTER THAN THE ANGEL YOU DON'T KNOW

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I met Deji a couple of times and one time while we were chatting he mentioned he had strong connections with a popular record label. The thing is in Nigeria, any music artist signed up to a record label is sort of a big deal, so I was quite happy when Deji said he could hook me up. He gave me a guy's contact on bbm so I could add him up and message him, which I did. The person told me I would have to pay him some amount of money before I would be invited to Lagos, because the record label was based in Lagos. I proceeded to beg the person to reduce his price as it was too high and expensive for me to pay. This individual refused and stood on his ground.

In an attempt to find the money, I sold my Apple IPad online at a price i wasn't too happy about but due to how urgent it was. Deji even advised me to keep my money till I had met with the guy in Lagos but the guy insisted that I transfer the money to him before coming down to Lagos. I at least asked him for his phone number so I can call him to confirm if he had received the money and he sent me his phone number. I decided to call the number first before going to the bank and what I saw on my screen almost gave me a heart attack.

I had installed this application on my phone, it is called truecaller... It automatically tells me the real identity of who is calling and where they are calling from, it also tells you the real identity of who you are calling and where that number you are calling is (location). It also works for text messages...

Anyways what I saw on my screen was Deji's name, accompanied by his location, Abuja. I didn't want to believe it, I tried to think it was a mistake. I dialed the number again and Deji's Name came up on my screen. I guess he didn't know I was that sophisticated. I immediately blocked the fake account on Bbm (blackberry mobile) and ignored all Deji's calls because he kept calling me, with his real phone number and the fake one.

I thought he was my friend, I mean we shared secrets together. He would tell me of his ordeals while I tell him of my escapades with the ladies. I just didn't believe I let him get this close to me, i mean this kind of individual could actually kill someone, especially someone he calls a friend just for the money. From that day onwards he seized to be my friend, he wasn't even worth being an enemy, he just didn't exist to me.

I warned my other friends to stay clear of him and narrated my ordeal with him to them so they know the kind of person he is. I recently liked his post on Instagram and he messaged me almost immediately, I guess he thought we had settled, but the like was just a mistake and I didn't want to unlike the post as it may seem childish. What he did to me was truly a dagger in the back, although he didn't entirely succeed. This is my true life story...