Fake Alert and Shop Fraud: A Nigerian Trader's Handbook
These tricks are old. They still work, because they are run on you at your busiest moment of the day. 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 leave your shop when money enters your account, not when a message enters your phone.
An alert is a claim that money was sent. Your balance is the fact that it arrived. Almost every scam in this guide lives in the gap between the two, and every one of them is run when you are too busy to check.
The excuse you will hear is network delay, and sometimes that is genuinely true. It changes nothing. Money that is really on its way will still be there in an hour, and a real customer will happily let you keep their goods aside until it lands.
The tricks, and how to catch each one
Each one below is run somewhere in Nigeria every single day. Read the tell, not just the name, because the name is never announced while it is happening to you.
The fake bank alert
How it is run
The customer pays by transfer, and seconds later a credit alert lands on your phone. It looks like your bank: same sender name, same wording, the right amount. It is a message sent from an app, not from your bank.
The tell
It arrives faster than your real alerts, and your balance has not moved. Read the message next to a genuine alert from the same bank and the spacing, the wording, or the way the balance is written is usually slightly off.
Do this instead
Open your own banking app, or dial your own balance USSD code, on your own phone. The alert is a claim. Your balance is the fact.
The screenshot that proves nothing
How it is run
The customer turns their phone around and shows you a completed transfer, sometimes with your own account number visible on it.
The tell
You are looking at an image, not a live transaction. Amounts, names and times on a screenshot can be edited in a minute, and there are apps that produce a convincing fake receipt from scratch.
Do this instead
Never accept anything on the customer's screen as proof. Check your account on your device. A genuine customer will not mind waiting the thirty seconds.
The "declined" POS transaction
How it is run
The card is charged, the terminal says the transaction failed, and the customer pays again in cash or asks you to refund the failed amount. Days later the first charge settles into your account and the customer has taken goods and cash.
The tell
A transaction that "failed" but still debited the customer. On the other side, a customer who is very insistent on an immediate cash refund for a failed charge.
Do this instead
Treat a failed POS charge as unresolved, not as failed. Wait for the settlement report before you refund anything in cash, and tell the customer plainly that you will refund once your bank confirms it did not go through.
The overpayment and change
How it is run
The customer transfers more than the price, sometimes much more, and asks for the difference in cash. The transfer is fake, delayed, or later reversed. The cash is real and it is gone.
The tell
Any transaction where a stranger wants cash back on a transfer. The story is always plausible and always urgent.
Do this instead
No cash change on a transfer you have not confirmed in your own balance. If the money really has landed, giving change costs you nothing to delay by a minute.
Counterfeit notes
How it is run
Fake notes are passed at the busiest moment of the day, in poor light, usually in the middle of a larger bundle so they are not examined one by one.
The tell
The feel is the fastest check — the material and the raised printing on a genuine note are hard to reproduce. Then the watermark and the security thread when you hold it up to light.
Do this instead
Handle notes rather than glance at them, and check the middle of a bundle, not just the outside. Keep the notes a customer hands you in sight until the sale is finished, so what was handed over cannot be disputed afterwards.
The distraction pair
How it is run
Two or three people arrive together. One keeps you talking at the counter, asking about prices, changing their mind. The others are elsewhere in the shop, or watching where you keep your cash and what you type into your phone.
The tell
An unusually chatty customer who is not buying anything, arriving at the same time as other people who are not together with them "officially".
Do this instead
Do not serve a group alone at your busiest hour if you can avoid it. Keep your cash out of sight and shield your phone screen. If your attention is being held, that is the signal, not the goods.
The supplier who does not exist
How it is run
A supplier reaches you on WhatsApp with prices well below the market. They ask for a deposit to "secure the goods". After the deposit there is a delay, then a fee, then silence.
The tell
A price no real wholesaler could offer, pressure to pay today, a personal account name that does not match the business, no physical address you can visit, and a profile or number that is only weeks old.
Do this instead
On a first transaction, buy in person or through someone who has bought from them before. Confirm the account name matches the business name. If you must pay ahead, make the first order small enough that losing it would not hurt.
The loss that is already inside
How it is run
Not a stranger. Goods leave and the sale is never recorded, or it is recorded at a lower price and the difference stays behind. It is slow, it is small each time, and it usually goes on for months.
The tell
Stock is going down faster than your sales say it should, and your cash at the end of the day rarely matches what you expected.
Do this instead
Count your cash against your recorded sales daily, not monthly. A shortfall found the same evening is a conversation. The same shortfall found in December is a year of losses you cannot trace.
Print this, or make it the rule everyone in your shop can recite. It is worth more than knowing the name of every scam.
If it already happened to you
Do these in order, and do them today. Every hour that passes makes recovery less likely, because the money is being moved on while you are deciding what to do.
Keep everything, delete nothing
The message, the chat, the call log, the time it happened. Screenshot the conversation before anything expires. If you have a camera in the shop, note the time so the footage can be found before it is overwritten.
Call your bank the same hour
Speed is the only thing that helps. Ask them to trace the transfer and to flag the receiving account. Once the money has been moved on from that account, there is usually nothing left to recover, and that can happen within minutes.
Do exactly what your bank tells you next
The bank will tell you what they need from you to take the case further, and the requirements differ from bank to bank. Whatever they ask for, get it the same day. The process only moves as fast as you do.
Warn the people it will happen to next
Post the account number and phone number in your market association group. The same details are reused for weeks. Your report is often what stops the fourth and fifth trader from losing money.
Change the routine, not just the mood
Almost every trader who is caught knew the rule and broke it because the shop was full. Decide now what you will do when it is busy, because that is the only time this happens.
One thing worth saying plainly: being caught by this does not mean you are careless. It means someone whose full-time job is deceiving traders got to you on the day your shop was full. Report it, tell other traders, change the routine, and keep moving.
Questions Traders Ask
Can someone really fake a bank alert?
Yes, and it is not difficult. A message can be sent so that it displays under your bank's name, and there are apps that generate a receipt screen that looks correct in every detail. This is why an alert cannot be treated as payment. The only thing that proves money has arrived is your own balance, checked on your own device.
The customer says it is network delay. What do I do?
Sometimes it genuinely is. That does not change what you do. Tell the customer the goods are theirs and you will keep them aside until the money lands, then hand over when it does. A real customer with a real delay loses nothing by waiting. Someone who cannot accept that arrangement is telling you something.
Is a screenshot of a transfer proof of payment?
No. Treat it as no evidence at all. An image can be edited in under a minute, and there are apps built specifically to produce fake transfer receipts. The same applies to a live-looking screen on the customer's phone, which can be an imitation app rather than a real banking app.
Can I get my money back after a fake alert?
Sometimes, if you move immediately. If the receiving account still holds the money when your bank acts, it can be frozen while the dispute is investigated. In practice the money is usually moved on within minutes, so recovery is the exception rather than the rule. Report it anyway, because the account gets flagged and that protects the next trader.
How do I train my sales staff on this?
Give them one rule instead of a list: goods leave the shop when money is in the account, and only the shop owner's phone counts as proof. Make it a rule about the process, not about judging the customer, so staff never have to decide whether someone looks trustworthy. Then make clear that no member of staff will ever be blamed for making a customer wait.
Does MyTreda stop fake alerts?
No app can check your bank balance for you, and any app that claims to prevent fake alerts is overselling. What MyTreda does is remove the second half of the problem: every sale is recorded with the amount, the payment method and who served the customer, and closing your till at the end of the day compares your cash against your recorded sales. You find a shortfall the evening it happens instead of discovering it months later with no way to trace it.
Last reviewed: September 2026. Bank procedures and note security features change over time. If something here no longer matches what your bank tells you, let us know and we will correct it.
You Cannot Stop People Trying. You Can Make It Hard.
MyTreda records every sale with its amount, payment method and who served the customer, and closing your till compares your cash against your sales the same evening. Shortfalls surface the day they happen, not in December.
