Things happen

Sometimes, things happen as if the world is against us and it's very natural. We can't beat it.

It was exactly the beginning of February 2024 when the heat of data subscription increment across all the telecommunication networks was on, I got an information on a WhatsApp group about a particular app that was selling Data bundles for a very cheap price. I got the information in the afternoon of that particular day and as it was at that moment, I was so occupied with work, so I decided to forward the information to my brother and I went offline. Immediately I dropped my phone, my phone rang, I checked and it was my brother to whom I forwarded the information.
“Are you sure this thing real? Imagine using N500 to buy 5GB worth of data, it sounds unbelievable” My brother rushed in a very fast tone.

“Yes, very real. I've seen people that did it and it worked. You better do it now before the offer closes. You know, things like that don't last” I encouraged him to go on with it while I dropped my phone to focus on my work at hand. I intended to purchase the data later at night when I was free.

The evening came, and my brother returned from work and testified that it worked and had accumulated about 60GB, he showed me his data balance and I was wowed.

When I finally settled, I logged into the app, went to the funding spot, and clicked on the second funding option which states that I must contact customer care after paying money to the account for them to fund the wallet. I calculated how much data I wanted to accumulate and paid N5,000 to the stated account. I went on to chat the customer care but the messages remained on a single click for about 1 hour of waiting.
It was around 11:40pm and I couldn't exercise patience any longer, I had to wake my brother who was snoring already.

“Yes, what's it?” He sluggishly answered with his hand covering his face to prevent the ray of touch light from my phone.

“When you funded your account, did it take time to reflect on your wallet, did it take up to 1hr?” All my mind was to get that satisfying answer of “yes” because I didn't want to believe my money was gone.

“No, it was almost instant. It didn't reach up to 2mins before the wallet was funded”

“Haaaaaa! Which of the funding options did you use?” My brain couldn't just accept the answer.

“I used the first one. Did you use the second option? That one is not working oooh! I heard people complaining about it”

His answer brought goosebumps to my skin, I could see them very thick on my skin even though it was night. I didn't want to believe I had been scammed or the app had stopped functioning, so I sluggishly went to sit on my chair while lamenting, “Why did they put the second option if it's not working? Why did they put a customer care line when they know they won't be available to respond?”

My brother felt less concerned and fell back to his sleep. I waited and waited, sent endless messages to the WhatsApp number, dialled the number and nothing. Messages didn't deliver neither did the calls go through.
“Okay, maybe they won't respond at night, let me wait till tomorrow morning” I consoled myself and managed to sleep that night. All through the night, my mind was about the money. I was expecting a miracle to wake up and see the wallet funded before the dawn of the day.

The next day around 5:00am, I woke up and the first thing I did was to log into the app to check if the wallet had been funded but nothing. I quickly opened WhatsApp to see if my messages had been delivered. Yes, they got delivered and read but the profile photo of the account went off. It dawned on me that my money was gone because those numbers were the only way to reach them. There was nothing I could do, I only lamented endlessly but nothing positive came out. At the end of the day, I laughed it off because it's all about the 'long throat' that caused it. But I could have benefited if I had done that earlier but sometimes, things happen like that.

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