Hundreds of Nigerians in Canada woke up to the realisation that they have been scammed on an eCommerce website, OBA Global.
The website crashed in the morning of Wednesday as users could not access the website or their funds.
OBA Global is not a money doubling platform like MMM and others similar to it, OBA Global comes off as believable because users are designated to carry out tasks on a daily basis.
The WhatsApp administrators of the scam quickly left WhatsApp groups where they were stationed to convince people that the scam was real. The inundated the groups with evidence of making money and how their lives have changed.
Chronicle NG reports that users are expected to publish products from e-sellers on multiple platforms starting with Tokopedia in Level One and Amazon in Level Four.
To sign up on the OBA platform, you need a referral code and a minimum of $500. In level one, you will be given 20 tasks a day, and based on each task you will be paid as little at 90 CAD cents.
Chronicle NG reports that if you can grow your revenue to between $2,000-$10,000 (CAD) and have at least three persons to sign up using your referral code, then you climb up to level 2.
To attain Level 3, users were required to have at least 10 invitees and between $5,000-$20,000 while to reach the highest level, which is four, you are required to have 20 invitees and a minimum balance of $20,000.
The tasks for the levels also differed. Level 1 users had 20 tasks to complete on a daily basis while Level 2, 3 and 4 had 25, 30 and 40 tasks to complete on daily basis.
OBA Global communicated with new users via a designated WhatsApp group. Each WhatsApp group was labeled Global E-Commerce V. As at the time of swindling its users, OBA Global had at least five WhatsApp group with over 4,000 members that have registered, Chronicle NG gathered.
Reacting to the scam, a user wrote, “I woke up to 350 unread messages. I just knew that “otiloo”, I don’t care about Lynn, she is a “White” planted here for a reason. I’m pained by our fellow Nigerians who knew it was all a scam. Just know you can be easily traced with your phone numbers. Where are all those active administrators forwarding messages to welcome people? Your voices and keypads seized all of a sudden,” the user wrote in reference to Lynn a White lady who was the front.
Another user said, “Is there a way out? Can we report to our bank? If there is a receiving bank, the account holder must have opened the bank account with a details.”
Chronicle NG cannot independently verify if Lynn was involved or if her picture was taken off the internet and used as a front for the scam.
A certain Samuel Adebayo, a Nigerian has been identified as the mastermind of the scam. He targeted citizens from his country and convinced them that he had been earning money off the platform for many years.