By Ishaya Ibrahim/Lagos
Youths – some students, some jobless, others employed – are taking full advantage of the lack of law enforcement in Nigeria to stoke up cybercrime.
They are getting away with the loot and soiling the name of the country.
Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya are in the upper ranks of countries with the highest rate of internet crime.
A study by International Data Corporation (IDC) and the National University of Singapore showed that the three countries produce less than 2 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP) but account for 10 per cent of global cybercrime.
A journalist, who did not want his name in print, recently got a mail on his Facebook account which read: “We congratulate you over your success in the just concluded and official publication of results of the Facebook online draw held today, 4th of April 2014.
“We are here to notify you that your profile on Facebook was selected among the 50 lucky winners of Facebook active member monthly draw award.”
The scammers, also known as yahoo-yahoo boys, informed him that his profile won him $10,000 for being an active member of Facebook and that he could claim the amount at any bank using Western Union.
“You are advised to contact the Director of Africa/Asia Facebook team, Mr King Thomas Fall, through his email address kingthomasfall@live.com with your information for verification of your account.”
The journalist detected the scam and did not fall for it. But others have been conned.
One scammer, who identified himself as Moses, a 300 level student of English at the University of Benin explained how the trick works.
“The latest trend is fraudulent loan services,” he disclosed. “Before now, I concentrated mostly on dating scam. But the loan scam is more lucrative and more fool proof. What we do, I and a network of friends, is create websites offering loan services.
“We send emails to a list of about 800,000. Sometimes we get less than 100 response. At a point, we ask them to pay $100. We continue to scope (con) them, extorting little dollars from them.
“Once the Maga (victim) pays, somebody in the U.S., South Africa or India – our pick-up point – collects and sends the money to us through Western Union. When business is slow, we make about N4 million a month.”
Another scammer, who claimed to have repented, said: “The whole thing about yahoo-yahoo is to present false information to victims who could be either Nigerians or foreigners. Foreigners are easy to con because of their naivety.”
He recounted how his group conned a Swiss by sending him the picture of a pretty lady who they claimed was a Nigerian former beauty queen.
The man established communication with the fraudsters and later exchanged telephone numbers with them believing he was dealing with the lady.
Unknown to the Swiss, the fraudsters got a lady to answer his calls. After the scammers sufficiently aroused the interest of the Swiss in his dream lover, the false lady, who was in on the game, requested funds to pay for visa and flight ticket to meet him in Switzerland.
He fell for the trick and transferred money. After withdrawing the money, the fraudsters stopped further contact with him.
The former scammer said the tricksters obtain dark powers from herbalists to get victims, foreign or Nigerian.
“The charms come in different forms, like rings, concoctions, calabash, amulets and other spiritual articles which demand rituals to be performed. In some cases, the body parts of children are used for the rituals,” he explained.