Nigeria Customs Accused Fraudulent Of Abusing Online Goods Auction

The NCS Public Relations Officer, Mr. Joseph Attah, who gave this indication in a statement, also said the management had also begun moves to re-programme the online auction platform to make it inaccessible to fraudulent bidders.

The Nigeria Customs Service has accused some fraudulent bidders of abusing the bidding process of its online goods auction.

He said 43 winners emerged within 48 hours in the first round of bidding was opened on July 3.

“Out of this figure, 42 have paid for their bids and begun collection at the Ogun State Command where the vehicles are located.

“But when we started the second round of bidding by noon on July 12, which lasted 48 hours, 115 vehicles were uploaded on the platform. All were bid for and supposedly won. I used the word supposedly because our experience revealed that some bad elements, who are criminally-minded have launched unto the platform and begun bidding bogus and unrealistic figures just to spoil it.

“Where a bid is ongoing for an item with a reserved bid of N300, 000 and people are offering N650, 000 and all that, you would see someone from nowhere quoting N10m. It is obvious they are jokers who think we are fooling around.

“Remember the rule is that in the event the highest bidder cannot pay within five days, the item reverts to the second highest bidder. So, what these people have done is to pair themselves up. Where one person bids reasonably, say N500, 000 for an item with a reserved bid of N200, 000, the other drops an outrageous figure like N8m just to ward off potential bidders. We know the vehicle is not worth half of that amount in the market. This is unfair.

“So, we are reprogramming the system in such a way that you cannot bid beyond a certain percentage of the reserved bid or what the average bidders are offering. The system will not allow you and once you make such exaggerated bids, the system detects you using your Tax Identification Number, you will not participate in future bids.”