By Dahiru Samaila Mafara
In what looks like a night mire, an unknown dubious person believed to be a grand scammer had ran away with over 70 smart phones belonging to different individuals in Gusau, Zamfara state.
One of the victims of the scam in Gusau, DMV that she was called on phone by a staff of Karma Hotel in Gusau, telling the victim to go to hotel to register with a new program introduced by MTN.
The hotel staff to the victim, anybody who has valid registration with MTN and the new MTN program, would be given 100,000 Naira plus another 30,000 Naira to benefit from every month.
The victim further said that more than 70 women were invited as, adding that only women were invited because the principal fraudster who engaged the hotel staff in the fraudulent act, gave the choice of inviting women only.
It was also gathered that after the invitees assembled, he collected 1500 Naira from each woman as alleged fees for the registration.
Sources further narrated that the principal fraudster also told the victims that they must each surrender their handsets (phones) to enable him complete the registration, including security pins in writing to him, which they complied with.
The scammer also did some make ups on the faces of the victims, and designed the trade mark of MTN on their individual faces on one side and that of Nigeria’s Coat of Arms on the side of their faces.
After collecting their phones and pins, the scammer put the phones in his bag and told the victims to wait as he had to go to Fulbe Villa Hotel also in Gusau where he will meet his co- workers who would help him to validate the registration.
That was how he dubbed the victims of their phones and money, only to leave them with MTN trade mark and the Nigeria’s Coat of Arms on their faces.
Police Public Relations Officer at the state Police Command, SP Muhammad Shehu, said the Command had received report of the matter and has since commenced necessary investigation.
