My encounter with an online conman

After successful application and selection for a job as a morgue attendant I decided to relocate from my Village home to Nairobi like other men, I did not have enough savings after being conned by the white lady so I decided to sell part of my belongings to rent out a studio (bedsitter) in the loath suburbs of Mathare, and at least buy a Mattress and a few utensils.

 I flipped through Social media and came across a Facebook group which offered services where clients post their commodities and buyers contact them directly if they are interested. So I took a photo of my Acer pc and posted it.

Days and nights passed and all I could get were abusive comments on how my Laptop looked old. But I was optimistic that before a week or so I would have gotten a genuine buyer and before long I would start my life as a City boy.

 After one week of patiently waiting for a buyer without success, a friend suggested that I try opening up an account with an online market site and post my Laptop there, since there is so much traffic of serious people there due to the massive advertise on both print and visual media. I obliged and within a span of two hours I started receiving serious phone calls from Hurlingham, Runda, Kangemi and Other parts of Nairobi and thus I got spoilt for choice on whom I wanted to sell my beloved laptop to. I became an overnight celebrity just like a girl with many suitors I started being proud and thought I needed not people from Eastland’s to purchase my machine.

After a critical analysis I decided to sell my laptop to a buyer in hurlingham and I called this guy who had called me and asked whether I would take 15k. I told him there was another person interested in it and he had 18k in cash and I asked him if he could match this offer. Locally referred to as "Kufika bei" but he answered in well-orchestrated literature “My word is final, you either take 15k or we stop this deal.

He was a damn rude rich kid(I thought in my mind)So I bit the bullet and accept the offer,  after all I only needed 8k since  a studio was going for 3k in Mathare plus 3k deposit and this 2k was enough for a mattress and stove.

We schedule to meet the following day at Astrol petrol station near Yaya center. By 9.00am I was already at the venue waiting for him.

He arrived after thirty minutes dressed in crystal white shirt and a prim trouser with a close fitting vest that showed his well-built biceps. He was driving a new Toyota Avensis and he told me to get in to the car. After a small introductory chat we decided to exchange the transaction, but when he looked in to his wallet he realized he only had 10k and so he needed to get some more cash from the ATM at the Priory. So he left me inside the car and picked up his keys and walked towards Yaya mall.

After a few minutes he called to tell me that he had withdrawn the money so I should close the car leaving the laptop there and go to Yaya where I was to find him outside Chandarana Supermarket. He also told me to ensure I close the car properly so that nobody steals the laptop from the car.

I did as I was told and started moving towards Chandarana. As I set my feet to enter I decided to call him to get exactly where he was standing, and to my astonishment his phone was off. I became numb as my veins started to vasodilate and my next course of action was to run back to the car and wait for him there. But as I approached where we had parked I felt like I was in dream land. The car was not there, I had been conned of my valuable laptop, and the man had two sets of keys which his accomplice used the other to veer off after confirming I had left the car.

In my pocket I only had 100 so I trekked to town asking God many questions. Within no time I was in Khoja where I picked a matatu to Rironi, when I got home I went straight to bed but flashbacks of the well-built buyer kept haunting me.