The vendor collected my money and blocked me: do this in the first hour
Call your bank first, not the vendor. Ask the fraud desk to flag the transfer and hold the receiving account. Then screenshot everything: the chat, the profile, the price you agreed, and the payment slip. Do it before more time passes. Speed matters more than anger here, and your bank is the only party that can still touch the money.
- Call your bank's fraud line. Ask them to flag the transfer today.
- Screenshot the chat from the first message to the block.
- Save the payment slip, the account name and the account number.
- Save the profile too: page name, phone number, any link.
- Write down the dates and times of each step.
- Stop sending money. Not one naira, cedi or shilling more.
Why the first 24 to 48 hours matter more than anything else
Banks in Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania and South Africa can sometimes place a hold on a receiving account while they look into a fraud report. That window is short. Reports made inside 24 to 48 hours have the best chance. After that the cash is often moved on or cashed out at an agent.
If someone offers to recover your money, walk away
Nobody who slides into your comments offering to get your money back is real. This is the second scam, and it hunts people who have already been robbed once. They ask for a fee first, always. Court fees, transaction taxes, freeze lifting fees, cyber costs. Every one of those names is made up.
- Real help never asks you to pay a fee first.
- No one can "unfreeze" a stranger's account for you.
- A dashboard screenshot showing your money is a picture, not proof.
- If they found you under a scam post, they are working from a list of victims.
- Block them, report the account, and warn the friend who sent them.
Where to report the vendor, market by market
Report in three places, in this order: your bank's fraud desk, the police unit that handles online crime in your country, and the platform where you met the vendor. In Nigeria you can also file with the FCCPC, the consumer body. None of this is fast. It still builds a paper trail you may need later.
| When | Who to contact | What to bring |
|---|---|---|
| Same day | Your bank's fraud desk | Payment slip, account number, date |
| Day 1 to 3 | Police unit for online crime | Chat screenshots, receipts, profile details |
| Nigeria, any time | FCCPC consumer complaint | A written summary and your receipts |
| Any time | The platform where you met them | Profile link and the chat |
What our record can tell you, and what it cannot
We are not an escrow and we do not inspect anyone. What we hold is a record of what buyers said in public about sellers we found. On 1 September 2026 we listed 1,743 of them. A quiet page is not proof of a crime. It only means we could not find much to read.
- Most pages answering this question are written by people selling sourcing help, hair or cars.
- We sell none of that, so we have no reason to flatter anyone.
- We read what buyers said, and we publish the thin pages too.
| Trust signal | Sellers | Share of the list |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | 13 | 0.7% |
| 4 | 312 | 17.9% |
| 3 | 803 | 46.1% |
| 2 | 520 | 29.8% |
| 1 | 95 | 5.5% |
Before you pay the next vendor, run these seven checks
You will buy again, so make the next one boring. Ask for proof you can check yourself, pay into a business account in the business name, and keep the first order small. None of these steps make you safe. Together they move the odds, and they leave you evidence if it goes wrong.
- Ask for a live video call while they hold the goods you asked for.
- Ask for three past buyers you can message yourself.
- Search the page name plus "scam" and read the replies.
- Run their photos through a reverse image search. Stolen factory shots are common.
- Pay a business account in the business name. A personal account is a warning.
- Start with an order small enough to lose.
- Keep every promise in writing: price, size, weight, dates.
How we counted these numbers
The counts here come from the sellers you can see listed on this site on 1 September 2026, last refreshed on 29 August 2026. The trust signal runs from 1 to 5. A higher score only means more buyers left public feedback we could read. It is never a promise about anyone.