PAUL UTEBOR
Recently, the rise of social media and online vendors has changed the scope of how people buy and sell goods, bringing convenience and a wider reach for both buyers and sellers. However, this drift to digital marketing has also birthed new opportunities for fraud, especially with unpopular vendors who carry out online transactions and can be easily impersonated by fraudsters in a space where there are limited to zero regulations and consumer protections.
A particular sector that has seen a concerning rise in fraudulent activities is the beauty and hair industry, particularly among vendors operating on Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and other platforms.
In a recent incident that took place, a Facebook hair vendor with the name Hairhousenigeria has been found wanting for defrauding a prospective customer who asked to remain anonymous and a resident of Abuja, as she has failed to deliver on the product the customer paid for. She has continued to pressure the customer to keep making payments for products despite paying for the initial product the customer and the vendor agreed on.
According to the customer, while she was perusing through her Facebook profile, she came across one of ...s made by Hairhousenigeria on her Facebook profile. She noted that ... was an advert for a hair wig which she was selling at a clearance price, and it caught her interest, which made her follow up with ..., as ... had a call to action through which you could chat with the business directly via WhatsApp.
She disclosed that upon chatting with the vendor, indicating her interest in the desired wig she wanted, she noted that she agreed with the vendor to pay the sum of ₦12,000 and was also informed that the delivery fee was ₦3,000, totaling the sum of ₦15,000 for the whole transaction. This, she paid in full to the Monie Point account number: 5714328678, with account name Zainab Abu, believing that her commodity would arrive the next day, as the vendor revealed.
However, things took a different turn as Hairhousenigeria failed to deliver on their end of the agreement, which made the customer enquire about her product. All responses to know why they failed to deliver proof were abortive, as Hairhouse Nigeria continued ordering the customer to pay additional fees, acting like she didn’t owe the customer anything.
It was discovered that the WhatsApp number on her Facebook profile, 08160502699, when searched on Truecaller, revealed the name Sonia Vocs Hair Okota.
When SecretsReporters dug further into the business, we found that there was an Instagram page also with the name Hairhousenigeria, and the name on the bio of the page is Okereke Esther. On the Instagram page there was a warning stating that they only take orders on their website, and the link to their website was on the Instagram page.
As of the time of writing this report, all efforts to reach Hairhousenigeria through their Instagram page and the number on the page proved abortive, as they neither picked up nor returned the calls.