Fake alert and shop fraud: a Nigerian trader’s handbook
These tricks are old. They still work, because they are run on you at the busiest moment of your day, by someone who has practised the script and knows you have three other customers waiting. Here is every one worth knowing, the thing that gives it away, and what to do if it has already happened to you.
One rule covers most of this
Goods do not leave until the money is in your own account, confirmed in your own record. Not their screen. Not an SMS. Not a screenshot.
Almost every trick below is an attempt to get you to accept some other form of evidence in place of that one. Once you understand that, the individual variations stop being surprising, and the new ones that appear next year will fit the same shape.
The tricks, and how to catch each one
1.The fake bank alert
An SMS or push notification arrives that looks exactly like your bank’s credit alert, sometimes landing inside the same message thread as your genuine alerts because the sender ID has been spoofed. The customer holds up their phone, you hear your phone buzz, and the goods go out.
What gives it away: The alert arrives suspiciously fast, and the balance quoted in the message does not match what your banking app shows when you open it yourself.
What to do: Never read the alert. Read your balance, in your own app, before anything leaves the counter.
2.The screenshot that proves nothing
The buyer shows a screenshot of a completed transfer. It may be edited, it may be an old genuine transfer with the amount and name changed, or it may be a real transfer that was reversed or never left pending.
What gives it away: There is nothing on the screenshot that can be checked. That is the point of it.
What to do: A screenshot is a request to trust, not a proof of payment. Treat it as an unpaid order.
3.The "network delay"
The transfer is genuinely pending, or so you are told. The customer is in a hurry, has somewhere to be, and offers their number so you can call if it does not land. It never lands, and the number rings out from that evening onwards.
What gives it away: Urgency. A customer whose money actually left is usually calm about waiting; a customer running this needs you to decide in the next two minutes.
What to do: Hold the goods and offer to keep them aside. Say it warmly and say it every time, so it is your policy rather than an accusation.
4.The declined POS transaction
The terminal shows a failure, or the customer says it failed, so they pay again by transfer, or ask for the cash back. Later both transactions settle, or the original one settles and the "refund" you gave was pure loss.
What gives it away: Any situation where a payment is attempted twice by two different methods in quick succession.
What to do: Never refund or re-run a failed payment until you have checked your own account. Terminal receipts and bank settlement are not the same event.
5.The overpayment and change
The customer pays more than the price, by transfer or in cash, and asks for the difference back in cash. The overpayment is then reversed, charged back, or was never real, and the change you handed over is gone.
What gives it away: An unnecessary overpayment. There is no ordinary reason for a stranger to send you more than you asked for.
What to do: Give change only from a payment that has settled in your account. For transfers, ask them to send the exact amount instead.
6.Counterfeit notes
Fake notes move fastest in crowded markets and in the evening rush, often inside a thick bundle where only the outer notes are genuine.
What gives it away: Wrong feel and no raised print, colour that shifts incorrectly when tilted, a missing or printed-on security thread, and a watermark that is visible without holding the note to the light.
What to do: Count large bundles note by note, not by thickness, and keep a UV light if you take a lot of cash. Feel the note; the paper is the hardest part to fake.
7.The distraction pair
Two people arrive together. One asks about stock at the far end of the stall or creates a small dispute, while the other takes goods, cash, or a phone from the counter.
What gives it away: A customer who pulls your attention physically away from the till or the display at the exact moment a second person is handling goods.
What to do: Do not leave the counter while an unfamiliar customer is at it. If you are alone, serve one party at a time and say so.
8.The supplier who does not exist
A new supplier offers stock below the market rate and asks for a deposit to secure it. The goods never arrive and the number goes dead. This one takes the largest amounts, because it targets your restocking money rather than a single sale.
What gives it away: An unusually good price from someone you have not traded with, combined with pressure to pay a deposit today.
What to do: Pay a first-time supplier only on delivery, or send a small first order. Confirm the account name resolves to the business you are actually dealing with.
9.The loss that is already inside
Not every loss walks in. A staff member quietly gives out their own account number for a customer payment, or a sale happens and no record of it does. This is usually the largest single leak in a small shop, and it is invisible without records.
What gives it away: Takings that do not match a day that felt busy, and stock that disappears faster than recorded sales explain.
What to do: Separate roles so staff can sell but not receive. Reconcile daily rather than monthly, because a month is long enough for a habit to form.
The thirty seconds before goods leave
Most of the money lost to fraud in a Nigerian shop is lost in one short window, between the customer saying they have paid and the goods crossing the counter. Everything that happens after that window is recovery, and recovery mostly fails. Make this a fixed routine that you and your staff run every time, for every stranger, without exception:
- Open your own account. Your app, your balance, your record. Never their screen.
- Check the exact amount. Not roughly right. Exactly right. Rounding down by a thousand naira is a trick, not a kindness.
- Check who sent it. The sender name should match the person in front of you, or the payment should be tied to this specific order.
- Then release. A pending transfer is an unpaid order, and saying so warmly is not rude.
The hard part is not knowing this. Every trader knows it. The hard part is doing it during a rush, on a bad network, with a queue forming and a customer expressing impatience — which is exactly the condition the trick is designed to create.
How to make the check take no time at all
The reason the check gets skipped is that it costs thirty seconds you do not have. So the real fix is not more vigilance — it is removing the ambiguity that makes verification slow in the first place.
When twenty different customers pay into the same shop account in one day, you cannot tell at a glance which credit belongs to which person, so you fall back on believing whoever is standing in front of you. That is the actual vulnerability, and it is structural rather than personal.
TrustAm closes it by giving every order its own account number, generated for that order and expiring afterwards. A payment into it can only belong to that order. The instant the money genuinely lands, our system sends a stamped confirmation to both you and the buyer at the same moment — so the receipt comes from the system rather than from the person who owes you money.
That single change ends the fake screenshot as a tactic, because there is no longer anything for the buyer to show you. You are not judging their evidence. You are reading your own.
Being straight about the limits: this stops the fake alert and fake screenshot class of fraud. It does not stop counterfeit notes, and it does not stop a dishonest staff member — although recording every sale as it happens is what makes internal shrinkage visible instead of invisible. Anyone who tells you one product prevents all nine tricks above is selling you something.
If it already happened to you
Move the same day. The chance of recovery falls sharply once funds have been moved on or withdrawn.
- Call your bank immediately and ask them to raise a dispute and place a lien on the receiving account. Have the exact time, the amount, and any account details you were given.
- Write down everything while it is fresh: what was said, what was shown, phone numbers, the account name that was displayed, and what the person looked like.
- Report it at your nearest police station and get the report documented. For significant amounts, or where a pattern is targeting your market, report it to the EFCC.
- Tell your neighbours in the market the same day. The same person usually works several stalls in one row before moving on, and a warning passed down the line stops more losses than any report will.
- Then change the routine, not just the vigilance. A loss that produces only a resolution to be more careful will happen again on the next busy day.
You cannot stop people trying. You can make it not worth it.
None of this requires you to become suspicious of your customers. The overwhelming majority are honest, and treating everyone as a suspect costs more in goodwill than fraud costs in goods. What it requires is that verification stops being a judgement call about a person and becomes a fixed, fast, impersonal step — one that is the same for a stranger and for the regular who has bought from you for six years.
When the check is instant and comes from your own record, nobody has to be trusted or doubted. That is the whole trick, and it is the only one that works in your favour.
Sources
- Central Bank of Nigeria — consumer protection guidance and banking regulation, cbn.gov.ng
- Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) — instant payment settlement and industry fraud reporting, nibss-plc.com.ng
- Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation — depositor protection and bank complaint escalation, ndic.gov.ng
- Economic and Financial Crimes Commission — reporting financial fraud, efcc.gov.ng