Fraudsters Dupe Traders By Buying With Magic Money (Photo)

Fraudsters who defraud people by buying goods with
‘magic’ or ‘mystic money’ are on the prowl in Uyo, the
Akwa Ibom State capital. The fraudsters sometimes
pretend to be tricycle riders or taxi drivers.
Yesterday, some of them entered a rice shop on Aka-
Etinan Road, Uyo and duped a sales girl with alleged
‘magic money’ and succeeded in going away with seven
bags of rice without full payment.
The story surprised passers-by. Narrating her ordeal, the
sales girl, Rose Etim, from Mbiet Ebe Obio Uyo, said two
men came to the shop to purchase 10 bags of rice.
According to her, after telling them a bag of rice was
N12,000, the fraudsters paid her N120,000 in N1,000
notes.
Etim said she counted the money before putting it in her
pocket but to her shock, the money turned to N100 notes.
She said: “It all happened this morning (yesterday)
around 11 am.
Two men came in here to buy rice from me.
I told them Ironic tomatoes rice cost N12,000 per bag.
They gave me money for 10 bags and I counted the
money, it was N120,000 naira.
I put the money in my jeans skirt pocket and one of them
went and sat in the car while the second one and I
started carrying the rice to the vehicle.
“After carrying seven bags to their vehicle, it was as if
the money wanted to fall out of my pocket. So, I pulled it
out in order to keep it where we used to keep sales
money.
I now noticed that the money has changed from N1,000
notes to N100 notes.”
Etim said she immediately raised the alarm which drew
the attention of neighbours. But, according to her, the
men jumped inside their vehicle and zoomed off.
A witness, Mr Ubong Essien, who is a tailor in a nearby
shop, confirmed Etim’s story.