I have had more than my own fair share of close shaves. Every now and then I am on the cusp of something risky and after the danger has slipped by I am left in awe, nay shock, with mouth agape how it manages to elude me. For me, the moments remain instructive in that they bring closer home to me the immensity of dangers that others have to contend with in the course of the meeting the quotidian demands of life.
Doing a five hour stint in a dingy police cell in Ile-ife after one of those senseless protests as a student taught me poignant lessons on the imperative of freedom more than all the prison memoirs I was wont to read. The import of my mum's regular morning mantra -there is just a step between death and life-hit me with meteoric impact when I had an unforgettable near death experience in 2003. The contradiction of showing love and care to person living with HIV and maintaining a healthy distance in order to stay uninfected hit me harshly when a cousin of mine caught the deadly virus. Life is a school, the sages tell us, and the tutorials often come unbidden.
The first instinct on reading about folks who had fallen prey to the now ubiquitous con men is to tag them greedy and ignorant plebeians after all it takes a streak of covetousness to fall for their annoying baits. I got a mail purportedly from my banker bearing the tale that my "ATM banking session has been suspended" on some, with benefit of hindsight, phoney grounds. Pronto, I set about to resolve the riddle within the constraint of time and distance. A wedding ceremony of a family friend's daughter was slated for the very next day and I needed to spend a few note at the imminent 'Owambe' party that we Yoruba are wired to throw at such outings. Where will I get money, I asked myself. Requesting permission to visit the nearest GTB branch was inconceivable. I had a short time-line to deliver on my assignment. So the only option left was to follow the link provided -
http://ibank.gtbank.com/%20ibank2/Alert.aspxTruth be told, I was not familiar with GTB internet banking services so i could be forgiven for not instantly recognizing the tell-tale signs that should otherwise have given the phoney platform away for what it was-fake. The address on the url :
http:////www.clangamingleague.com/Forums/images/ranks/base/data/ibank_gtbplc_com.phpwas different from what the link that led me there read.I couldnt care less as the urgency of resolving the riddle beclouded any my brain that i couldn't see the red flags.
I was poised to provide prompts answer to the questions that were a prerequisite to resolving the riddle: my ATM number, card expiry date, security question, pin, answer to security question, id and password to mention a few. I had answered two of the questions and was about retrieving my id and password which was tucked somewhere when it dawned on me that the link was not GTB's and that the site was too bare for comfort. That piqued my already sagging guards. I took a closer look at the site.
http://clangamingleague.com/ is definitely not my banker. It was a scam after all and the it was just another ploy to fleece an undiscerning 'maga' to use the yahoo yahoo lingo of his hard-earned money.
Many a time I have had to ignore without a second look messages from Interswitch that ATM pins should not be disclosed. Those messages I considered a no-brainer as I did expect any right thinking person to give their ATM pins to a third party.What self-conceit! I didnt know that it was only a matter of time before I would swallow the latest 'format' to use for the nth time the parlance of the uber-smart yahoo artists. I am cocksure I am not alone in this conceit.It is all too pervasive.Few harldy gave a thought to the hapless foreigners that were fleeced of their hard-earned money by yahoo yahoo artists.Why should they care aren't they greedy.Now the chicken has come home to roost.Hackers and internet fraudsters have trained their genius on our bank accounts and God helps us if our little savings get unscathed in their latest quest. It was a close shave for me, who knows it could be a big heist on another person's life savings.
