Maximus Obumneme, a Lagos-based car dealer, has narrated how a group of United States-based scammers named Old Merchants defrauded him of $12,740 by posing as a secondhand car dealer.
The Nigerian car dealer told FIJ that he paid $12,740 for four cars between October and December 2023 to Old Merchants after concluding the firm was transparent.
Obumneme said that he contacted the company in October 2023, as they would not relent in sending him cold emails. He later visited the company’s website, where he found secondhand cars at affordable prices, which caught his fancy. In December 2023, he contacted Old Merchants again to register his interest in four of the vehicles displayed on its website.
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“They gave me their options of payment, and I paid for a Mercedes Benz, a Toyota Venza, a Kia Sorento, and a Ford Explorer. After I paid for the fourth vehicle, I paid for the container, which they said would convey the vehicles in a ship. They then said my goods would arrive in Nigeria on February 28,” Obumneme told FIJ.
The invoice
Obumneme said that immediately after Old Merchants told him on WhatsApp that his cars would arrive in Nigeria in February, they stopped communication.
He said he followed up by messaging the company but they would not respond. He said he continued to request the bill of lading but Old Merchants did not respond or reply to his emails.
“I began to think they may have defrauded me at this point. So, I used another number to chat them up as a new buyer, and they responded immediately. I asked them how I would pay, and they responded to me. I then forwarded all the documents they sent earlier to me, and they stopped responding,” he said.
“When my friend in the US Googled the Old Merchants’ address, he said the address was just open land. I paid him $350 to send an Uber driver to that location. The Uber driver went there with my friend and had a conference call with me, but it was empty.”
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Old Merchants’ address as seen on Google Maps show that the company does not exist on the said land
Obumneme, who revealed that Old Merchants targets Nigerians, Ghanaians, and Senegalese as victims, said he had contacted the company about his discovery but they wouldn’t respond.
When FIJ sent a WhatsApp message to Old Merchants, they did not respond, although they responded to this reporter when he contacted them on a different number and posed as a potential buyer.
Old Merchants responded swiftly to this reporter, telling him his preferred car was out of stock. When he indicated interest in a different vehicle, they sent their mode of payment.
A Google Earth and Google Maps view of Old Merchants’ address shows that the company does not exist on the specified land.
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