There are millions of people trying to steal from you

A few days ago, I made a purchase of a product whose value was around one million naira. I literally swept my account to pay for it because it was so important to me.
(So don't be misled into thinking that I'm rich, because I'm not.)

Despite cleaning my account, I still couldn't raise the purported sum. I had about a hundred thousand naira deficit. I pleaded with the seller to permit me to pay the balance the next day, which was a Friday. The seller was understanding.

I proposed to balance up the next day, because I was expecting payment for jobs I executed in October.

The bulk of my income comes from teaching diction and English phonetics. I do that as a freelancer.

Unfortunately, only one of the institutions I'm working with paid me. The amount I had still wasn't enough to balance the product.

I had a small volume of cryptos in my wallet. It wasn't my ideal time for selling, but because I wasn't about to disappoint someone, I had to sell them off to raise the money I needed.

Source

I went to Binance and found a relatively good advertisement from one of the merchants. I pitched my tokens to the merchant.

After a few minutes, the supposed buyer marked his purchase as paid and messaged me, ordering that I release my coins. I refreshed my bank apps several times without noticing any transaction related to the sales of my coins on Binance. I informed him that his payment had not yet reflected in my account.

After I gave him the information, he uploaded a screenshot of his receipt in our chat box. The screenshot was meant to act as his proof of payment. I guess so.

On a good day, I would have taken his stunts as jokes taken too far. Maybe I would've suggested more juicy ways to play the silly games. But I wasn't having any of it today. For crying out loud, I had a million-naira deal to close. A game that is attempting to thwart such a deal isn't something a sane individual should indulge in. And last I checked, I wasn't mad.

I uploaded my bank account's transaction history to him. He didn't reply. After minutes without seeing his reply, I messaged him again, asking him to download the payment receipt instead of making a screenshot, share his debit alert, or call me on video to share his account history.

It's not like anything on earth would've caused me to release my coin without seeing the money in my account. I only wanted to stop him in his tracks because I suspected fraudulent activity.

He didn't reply for two hours. It was frustrating because night was fast approaching and the person I had to make payment to was already on my neck. At a point, I couldn't pick up his calls because I ran out of excuses.

I was about to file an appeal on Binance. But I decided to wait a little longer. An appeal would've caused a delay because Binance would have to sort out the issue before I could re-market my cryptos.

It was apparent to me that the guy (the Binance merchant) was trying to scam me. You can't possibly pay a good amount of money into someone's account and refuse to speak with the person for two hours.

I finally told him to stop whatever he's trying to do because I'm tech-inclined and understand the scam format he's trying to use on me.

After telling him that, he knew what was about to befall him. He paid the money without replying to my messages.

A transaction that would've lasted less than five minutes dragged on for almost three hours.

Well, I eventually released the coin to him, not without giving him a negative rating, my reason being that he tried to scam me.

I couldn't proceed with my other transaction because I had to physically meet the seller for a receipt, and it got too late for that.

I'm a bit relieved because I have the complete balance chilling in my account. I will meet him tomorrow with two packages—apologies and money. I hope to be pardoned.

Guys, just be careful out there. The world is a cold place, and there are millions of people trying to steal from you.

PS: This was originally written on Friday, but published today. Changing the tenses to reflect that, would've concealed the emotions I had, while I was writing this piece on Friday night.