LIVING WITH A SCAMMER

2020 was a year that came with unforgettable memories.
Just as every other year, it started joyfully. Everyone being happy for the gift of, yet, another year.

Thanks giving to the creator and giver of life, filled everywhere, as everyone was dancing joyfully to the played songs in church.

The zeal I have to study nursing was not developed today. I have always been motivated to chase this profession, irrespective of the hardship I faced during the moulding process.

Going further back to the previous year, I bought the nursing form to study in a college of nursing located in imo state.
I passed all of the exams, but I had o drop out because the fees was too much. Almost a million naira for the first 6 months. What is worst is that if I failed the oral, written and practical exams after the 6 months, I will have to pack my loads and leave the school.

I left the school in disappointment, wishing i had enough money to continue my education.
Many tragic things happened that year, and I decided to take a break.

2020 came like a flash and I was hopeful again. I set my plans for the year, then I began to gradually accomplish them.

7 months into the year, I got a call to come to owerri for a job. I was very happy but then, I remembered that I had no accomodation in owerri.

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I immediately remembered my good friend who lives in owerri, so, I decided to give him a call..
We were like brothers. My family and his family are really close, but we lost communication when he left for Owerri, Imo state.

Subsequently, I will refer to my friend as Campala (that's his nickname).

Campala lived with his parents, and his parents said that I can stay with him in his room until I get an accomodations.

After some time, I noticed that campala was always awake in the nights, pressing his phone and computer. The only time he slept was during the day.
I asked him about it and he told me that he was working. He said it was a foreign company.

Being the innocent person I was, I thought it was a normal job.
The nights in my country and other countries are not the same.

One day, I heard him making some calls. I was asking the other person who they were using to work, he went further to say that the person should give the woman box, or bill her by leave. I was then hearing huge sums of money and it got my interest.

The next day, I decided to ask him about the job, but he refused to tell me anything deep. I mounted pressure because of the amount I heard the previous night and he reluctantly tell me that he was working with white people. He chats with them and they give him money.

Just like that? I asked in a surprising tone and he smiled, then replied yes.
I told him to teach me, which he did. Though he did not want me to chat with them. What he did was to give me a WeChat account, and told me to be shaking it. When get a friend, I will initiate an engaging conversation, then give him to continue. I do not know what happened afterwards.

Sometimes, we go to hotels, go to bars and different places to have fun.

When I asked where he got the money, he will tell me that he was paid.

After about a month, I began to understand the business. The realization that I was assisting somebody to fraud others made my conscience judge me. I wanted out but I do not know how to tell him because I don't want to hurt his feelings.
According to him, I have grace and my grace is making the foreigners pay a lot.

God being so kind, I received a call from my friend in Abia state. He told me that the nursing form is in sale, and I should come buy it.

From there, I formulated a story, I told them that my mom asked me to come back to Abuja after I purchased the form. This was so that they can prepare me for the exams and everything ahead.

When I told campala this, we began to have some issues. Silent issues. He was always frowning around me. He even asked me to spend the transportation that my mom will send to me. He said I should tell her that it was stolen. I refused all hese things, and that is how we became silent enemies.

Nevertheless, I quitted my job, left their house. Got the form, and went back home.

One thing I did not realize is that campala got his hands on my Gmail and it's password.
Everything I have was linked to my Gmail. If a person gets my Gmail, then they could access every single thing I have. I even save my passwords to different websites and my bank account in my Gmail.

When I got to home, I saw that my Gmail was not logged in to my phone any more.
I logged in back but it did not work.

I became scared. It was like my world was falling. With a shaky hands, I tried again but it did not log in. It told me that the password was incorrect.

The sim card I used to open the Gmail was lost. I tried my recovery Gmail but to no avail.

I began to see notifications of activities on the sites I was working with.

My heart melted and it was as if the ground should open, while I dive in.

I thought and realized that campala was the culprit. I tried to call him but he was not picking up. I tried countless of times, but it yielded no results.

I just manned up, left everything and created a new Gmail to start afresh. The action did not hurt very much, but knowing that a close friend did this to me, made me really sober.

From this encounter, I learnt never to trust anyone with my details. Not even my name.

This is my entry to the hivelearners prompt.

Thank you for reading 😊

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