in my younger brash days, I used to be among the many who saw advanced fee fraud, popularly known as 419 scams, as fitting "punishment" for westerners attempting to get rich quick from the corruption that runs relatively unchecked in Nigeria. in fact, upon receiving one of these 419 emails some years back, i replied giving the scam artist tips on how to make his emails more believable (hint, getting rid of the CBN@yahoo.com address and using sentence case rather than all caps, etc)....it was out of jest at the time....but i now find my actions regrettable. these days i have sobered some and realized that not only do these scams destroy families and their livelihoods, it has an enormous impact on the willingness of foreigners to engage in the Nigerian economy. It hurts us in the long-run moreso than we think.
anyway, i am happy that some on the receiving end of these scams are wising up and I was pleasantly entertained by this man's attempt to get the scammer at his own game....i believe making almost $200 in the process (which he says he later donated to charity). thanks BB for giving me a good laugh with this one...
6 comments:
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oooh you haven't seen the one's where dude was asked to perform sexual acts on another dude and send pictures in a scambait
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@GoodNaijaGirl - I hear u. I know that is the same policy used by some posters on craiglist as well. too sad.
@Dabizniz - uhhh, no....and that doesn't sound like scambait - it sounds more like prostitution...taking advantage of another person's difficult circumstances to satisfy one's sexual needs....in fact, it's even worse in this case, because the prostitute (the scammer) did not even receive compensation for his sexual services...sounds pretty effed up to me....
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dt was so hilarious! gosh, but it just ruins the rep of naija ppl abroad! i love my country but i cant rep it in certain places...
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I might have to check that site out.
Funny enough, I was thinking about a similar blog post because at least 2 people have come to Nigerian Curiosity in the last few weeks to proclaim the justice behind scamming. I guess it is because my Nigerian Curiosity blog comes in at #3 in a google search for Yahooze (quite innocently though, please believe me).
When i was younger, I never took the thing seriously and actually thought if someone was stupid enough to fall for it, then so be it. But, with age and experience comes a lot of wisening up, right? Like you, I understand hos scamming impacts not just Nigerians at home, but every person with Nigerian heritage wherever they might be. Just talk to my friends in investment banking and see how many deals they lose on account of their heritage. And these are hard working guys and gals.
Anyway, thanks for talking about this and pointing out the consequence. It is crucial.
Hope all is well.
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Nneoma
1) That picture is horrid, someone should advise him to invest in some vests or t-shirts and spare the world the sight of his stomach.
2) I'm glad someone can see that the 419 phenomena is a bad thing that does nothing to help Nigeria and Nigerians.
People like to think, "it serves the victims right". This is ignoring the fact that if this goes on long enough it will hurt Nigeria and Nigerians more, as you your self have attested. Nigeria is a weak and fragile country (contrary to popular opinion amongst most Nigerians), that needs the outside world more than the outside world needs Nigeria. This is why the government and other bodies are always appealing for foreign direct investment. Who would invest in a place where law and order is weakly enforced?
The country is already synonymous with a string load of negatives. Maybe for those in Nigeria, don't realise when you are black and abroad and make a make a mistake (be it deliberate or otherwise), you are judged more harshly than others and the negative stigma is attached far more resolutely to you than to others. This is another fact.
This turning a blind eye to wrong doing in Nigeria, will not help arrest the negative image by which Nigeria and Nigerians are viewed.
The same kind of nonchalance pervades Nigerian society in various guises. For instance the willingness to accept garbage and refuse in the streets.
When Euorpeans and other assorted foreigners were being kidnapped in the Niger Delta. Nigerians barely raised an eye-brow, because they felt immune, this "I'm alright jack" attitude prevails. Now foreigners are in short supply the kidnappers have now resorted to kidnapping the wealthier members of society, be it toddlers or professors in their 90s. It is now spreading beyond the South-South zone into the South-East zone, and this is a country that is trying to encourage tourism. What a joke!
I'm glad you realised that such behaviour should be condemned and stamped out. Mr Ribadu was on the right track (he returned some of the money and arrested some of the 419'ers). I'm not so sure about Mrs Waziri (current head of the EFCC) if she has done anything.
I too wonder how anyone believes the scams, and think that it serves those people (in their right mind who are trying to make a quick buck, as opposed to seniors who perhaps aren't as aware that such scams can happen) right. However, like you said, it hurts all Nigerians, and other Africans too.
For example, a friend sent me an ad on a site called usedottawa.com, which is set up for you to sell your used items and the person said in their ad that they would not be accepting responses from Nigerian email addresses or something to that effect because of the 419 association.