During the lockdown year, I was through with school and was not working then, so I got acquainted to online hustling for money. I had a WhatsApp group chat that harbored different kinds of people in the country, and making money there was so cool because everyone would source for the latest update and introduce it to the group chat.
I was the admin of the group chat, so anything that enters the group must surely be brought to me first, and yeah, I was involved in everything, both the wins and losses.
Due to the level of bonding between members of the group, we all became close friends, even though it was just on a virtual basis. We shared a common interest and looked out for each other.
Some of the group members progressed from just investing on the platforms brought as "paying updates", to creating their own site where they ended up scamming people including the members of the group.
When we saw how they cashed out big, a large percentage of the group members ventured into the business of creating their own site to cash out big too, and for sure, all of them hit the jackpot.
When I noticed how they were swimming and I, the boss of the group, was still struggling and losing money to these sites, I then suggested to some close friends in the group that we could strike our own deal too, but not on the basis of scamming.
Then, Fireboy, a group member too, quickly told me to join him on his plan because he'd been personally preparing to unleash his site, and it was only finance to pay the web developer that was holding him back.
I hopped in without hesitation, and he told me what to pay. That period, I did not have any money with me, so I patronized a loan app for the very first time in my life. I was so sure that the money would come out for me to pay back once we launched the site, so I wasn't scared at all about the loan app.
I made sure I convinced him that were not going to scam the people; we'll use the capital (money invested by people on the site) and invest in crypto, get the profit, and payback the investors their capital plus their profits within an interval of a month. He agreed on everything.
So, with the mindset of not scamming anybody, we introduced the site to everyone with our identities as the owners of the site, which will make the people have confidence to invest because they know us(me in particular) and I don't have a "rough record."
The site got launched, and to our surprise, a lot of people invested a huge amount of money with the trust they had in us. Every member of my group invested, and I assured them of their payment when their investments matured.
Within the period of one month when their investments were running, I and my friend, Fireboy, were busy with massive publicity, and people were trooping in.
Then one day, Fireboy called me and said he's in my town. It was so unbelievable because I never thought I would see anyone physically in the group. He gave me his location and I went to meet him in an hotel that early hours of the day.
Did mentioned that he's a soldier? Yeah, Fireboy is a member of the Nigeria Army Force. So I met him that day in the missed of his army colleagues, we took photos together. We posted the pics on the whatsapp group and it wowed everyone.
It got to a month, and their investments began to mature, so we kicked off payment. We paid with the money that we got from recent investments by people, and we decided not to touch the one in which we invested so it would have time to yield. We paid very well and the goodness noised abroad, which attracted a lot of peoy to invest with us that day.
On the second day of payment, the money at hand got exhausted and we were still having lots of pending withdrawals to attend to. I asked Fireboy to go and pull out the invested funds so we'll use to clear up the pending Withdrawal, and he gave me the story of "we can't pull out the money we invested because it has not matured". He explained very well and I believed him.
By then, the group members have started calling names and dragging me, so I had to step up to calm them down and gave them the assurance of getting paid once we our funds get to us.
The next day around 11:00am, a number messaged me on Whatsapp with a photo of Fireboy in a mortuary, with cotton wool on his mouth and nostril. The message said that the person in photo is dead and they're looking for his close relative to report the death to and it happens that my number appeared on the most recent call and chat list of Fireboy's phone.
Guys, I zoomed and checked the photo thoroughly and it was so clear that it was Fireboy's dead body. At that moment, tears dropped out from my eyes, it was so hard for me to believe that truly Fireboy is dead.
I chatted very well with the number and I got real convincing replies. So I believed.
I quickly went to relate the issue to the group chat, and that was the moment they opened my eyes to see that it was all lies. They pointed to a lot of facts concerning the photo and I really got it from their point.
It didn't stopped there, everything backfired on me because they believed that I planned it with him to fake his death so we'll share the money on a clear air.
I tried to explain to them that I know nothing about the saga, but they never believed me; in fact, they started calling me a scammer.
I felt so bad, I took my time to see if I could reach out the the "dead" Fireboy but no way, all the lines were off. Even the number that messaged me to inform me of the death was off.
Before I knew it, the picture of me and Fireboy that we snapped when we met, started flying on all groups with "RIP and scammers" tag.
I went to meet my closest friends on the group to explain to them all that happened but they never believed me, I even told them Fireboy disappeared with everything, and the money I borrowed to sponsor the site has not been settled but hell no, they refused to believe.
I felt so bad, I thought that even if everyone don't believe me, the people I called friends should be able to believe me but, no way.
I was so heartbroken and I couldn't take the hurt anymore, I dissolved the group and let everyone go their separate ways. A lot of people came to my DM to plead for the rebuild the group because it was their source of daily cruise but I refused because I needed my peace.
After few months, some of my friends returned back to me, for us to get along again and that's it, we saved contacts and became cool again.