I am your friend, Dr. Charles Apoki. I want to alert you to two or three scamming techniques that our people have come up with. Number one, they will study the kind of business you do. For example, they know that I do real estate. Then they will call you and say that they are interested in buying land from you. They will tell you that their oga wants to settle them. Most of them are usually from my side, from the East. They will say that there is some money they have saved that their oga or boss does not know about, and that they want to use it to buy real estate from you.
He will tell you that he will use somebody who knows where you reside and knows you well to call you. That person will now call you and say that his brother wants to buy land and that he will contact you directly.
This first caller will also tell you that you will settle him with an “appreciation fee.” After you have told him the price of the land, the so-called buyer will now call you.
He will tell you that he will send the money through an Alhaji that does money transfer because the money is huge, maybe 10 million naira or 20 million naira. If you are not careful, around 6:00 p.m., he will call you again.
Let us say A is the one that contacted you and B is the supposed buyer. B will now tell you that the Alhaji could not transfer the money at that time of the day. Then he will say that there is a night bus coming from Kano and that he is going to put the money inside a deep freezer and lock it so that no one can open it.
He will tell you that when the deep freezer arrives, you should open it, take the money, keep the freezer for yourself, and issue a receipt to Mr. A, who is supposedly his assistant.
If you are not wise, they will wait till very early the next morning. Mr. B will now call you that the vehicle has been stopped by policemen in Auchi and that they are threatening to open the freezer. He will say that if the police open it and see the money, they will seize it.
Then the driver, whom we will call Mr. D, will call you. He will tell you that there is an officer there who wants to help them so that they don’t open the freezer and see the money.
Mr. B will start panicking and will panic you too. He will tell you that he does not want his boss to know that he has that kind of money. If you try to call Mr. B again, his line might not go through. After some time, he will call back and say he was in the toilet and took permission from his boss to call you.
It will be a very complex arrangement designed to confuse you.
Then the driver will tell you that they need 10,000 naira to give to the people who held them so that they can release the vehicle. If you send 10,000 naira, he will call you again and say that the DPO said, “Do you think I am hungry? Do you think I am crazy?”
Then the so-called policeman assisting them will say that if you give him 100,000 naira, he will allow them to go. If you send 100,000 naira, they will now tell you to send your account number so that they can return the 100,000 naira, but that the amount is now 150,000 naira.
You will send 150,000 naira, thinking that 10 million naira is coming to you to buy land.
It is a cartel.
After some time, they will call you again and tell you that they are now at Okene or somewhere close, but that road safety or NDLEA has stopped them. They will say the officers insist that the freezer must be opened because that is how people traffic drugs.
Then they will tell you that one of the officers said they should settle him with 200,000 naira. If you are desperate, you will send another 200,000 naira.
The road safety man that will talk to you, the driver that will talk to you, all of them are part of the same gang. The driver will even sound like an old man, as if he is my age mate.
Before you know it, you would have spent about 600,000 naira to fraudsters.
That is one technique.
Another technique is to tell you that they have property for sale and that you should come and see the property. If you are desperate and you go alone, or even if you go with a team, they can kidnap you and demand ransom from your family.
Another technique is that if you are meeting them in a hotel because you want to sell property, they can tell you to come with the documents. If you are foolish and desperate, you will go with your original documents.
They will force you to sign a transaction they have already prepared, and then they will “yamunize” you. In the future, if your children or family come to ask questions, they will show them documents that you supposedly signed transferring your property to them.
Now let me tell you about another one that happened this morning, Sunday, 8th February at about 11 a.m.
Some days ago, I got a call with an American number. The caller said he was Dr. Nelson and that he was resident in Virginia, United States. He said he was from Ondo State.
In fact, he first called one of my managers, and my manager called me. I asked him where he was from, and he said Ondo State. Then I spoke Yoruba to him. He said he was born in the United States and that he does not speak Yoruba well.
This morning he called me again and told me he was from Owo and that he was Dr. Nelson. I pretended as if I was not a medical doctor.
He called me by 11 a.m. and I asked him, “Don’t you go to church?”
He said it was early morning in Virginia and that he had just woken up.
Number one, the first day he called, he could not pronounce Virginia well. He was using slangs and called it something else entirely. Virginia is simple and straight to pronounce.
I studied North American geography, so I know these things.
As we were discussing, he said he wanted to work with me. I told him I would connect him to one of my managers. He said no, that he does not like working with managers.
I told him I have a complex organization and that the phone call we were having was being recorded and would be scrutinized by security agencies.
This morning when he called again, I decided to mess him up.
I could trace a Liberian or Ghanaian accent in his speech. You see, Ghanaians and Liberians always put “please” when they talk. Nigerians don’t do that. Nigerians are usually more brash.
So he kept saying “please, please.”
I told him I could hear a Liberian or Ghanaian accent in his speech. He said no, that he had never been there and that he was born in America. But his accent was not American, his grammar was not correct, and his sentences were not structured like an educated person.
Then I asked him, “Are you a medical doctor?”
He said yes.
I asked, “Which field?”
He said he was a gynecologist.
I laughed.
Then I told him I am a medical doctor and that I have been a medical doctor for 42 years. I told him to subtract 42 from his age.
He said he needed me to mentor him and that he wanted to work under me.
Then I asked him, “Do you have VVF cases in America?”
He said yes.
I knew immediately he was an idiot.
I asked him, “What could be the causes of VVF?”
He said most of the drugs they use in America are from India and that those drugs can cause VVF.
Imagine – drugs causing VVF!
I told him, “My friend, you are not a medical doctor. You don’t know the meaning of VVF. You don’t speak like a medical doctor and you don’t speak like an American.”
I told him, “You cannot con a conman. I am a crook too.”
I told him that his technique would not succeed and that he should look for a better thing to do.
He became apologetic and I ended the call.
So be very careful.
He called me with an American number, but he could be in Nigeria, Liberia, or Ghana. I have been to these countries and I know how they speak.
These people are going to different lengths and using different methods to defraud people.
Dr. Charles Apoki is still my name.
Send a message to +234 80 2121 9262 to register for our upcoming webinar on the 21st of February 2026.
If it is not this number I have called, any other number is fraudulent. Always confirm. We do not send codes to people to attend meetings outside our known team.
God bless you.
Beware. A word is enough for the wise.
