Nigerian Customs to resume e-auction from July 1, warns against fraudsters
After months of postponements, the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) has announced that its electronic auction of seizures will begin from July 1, 2017.
But before now and since the mention of changing from physical bargaining auction model to e-auction, online fraudsters has been circulating messages about the proposed auction of seized items even with flashes of pictures of goods and mainly flashy cars at suspicious prices that are very tempting.
Many of the scammers use fake Facebook accounts and go the extra mile of posting their photos on real Customs uniform when they are not.
On their posts, they always give a number for people wishing to buy from them to call them for confirmation.
According to the Acting Public Relations Officer of the Service, Mr. Joseph Attah, “A lot of security measures had been put in place to defeat any attempt by fraudsters to take advantage of the auction process”.
“The online platform is so secure that no fraudster will be able to tap into it, adding that the sale would be broadcast live.
He warned that only people looking for shortcuts would fall victims of fraudsters because the NCS would not require anybody to pay money into an individual account or call anybody on phone.
Attah advised prospective buyers to first collect a Personal Identification Number (PIN) from the Federal Internal Revenue Service (FIRS), which would enable them pay N1000 through the bank to qualify for the auction.
He said “The platform, which is highly interactive, will only give access to holders of the Tax Identification Number. Such taxpayers will log in, read the guidelines, pay the non-refundable N1,000 auction fee and proceed to bid for the items”.
He revealed further that the e-auction platform had undergone repeated stress tests to see if it would accommodate huge number of participants, hinting that the portal is fully networked to designated banks to ensure that money accruing from the auction goes to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Treasury Single Account (TSA) for transparency and accountability.
During the introduction of the e-auction scheme, NSC had explained that it was put in place to correct defects of the manual auction, which did not create equal opportunities for bidders and allowed for human errors.
