Increasingly, teenage secondary school pupils in Lagos are getting caught up in the despicable act of cyber scam. Daniel Ayomide Fadeyi, who recently interacted with some of the youngsters, reports that the trend is worrisome.
“To get my ‘clients to send me money, I simply tell them that I’m a student from Nicaragua and I need money to pay my school fees and to buy other school accessories. See, you can easily scam people from the United States when you tell them you are having problems with your schooling, unlike India.”
That was the brazen reply of Peter, an SS2 student in one of the government secondary schools in Bariga, Lagos, who obviously have become ardent in the internet scam popularly known as yahoo yahoo. Without any sense of remorse, Peter explained that “When you talk of Yahoo, there is state to state; that is normal chatting through Facebook or sites. We also use app “Hangout; with this app, you don’t need to visit the cyber cafe every time. Whether your mobile data is on or not, it keeps you updated, thus your account will not be blocked easily.
“I use sites like Facebook or Messenger. However, your account can be blocked easily on Facebook once you use words like ‘Western Union’ or ‘Moneygram’ in your conversation with your client. To avoid this, I changed my IP when I opened my account.”
The above ‘confession’ by this youngster may well capture an emerging trend among the nation’s teenagers. This may also mean that a new army of cyber-scammers are on the rise, which calls for great concern. Despite the federal government’s campaigns and actions towards stemming the unsavoury act, which has seriously dented the nations image, the act popularly known as yahoo yahoo seems well-positioned to soar into the next generation Nigeria. More shocking, is the fact that these secondary school students openly declare their involvement in trend, flaunt their exploits and are readily recruiting new and willing colleagues by the day.
When asked why he is involved in cyber crime and what he uses the money for, Peter’s reply was: “I play football and I need money to travel to Spain or Germany. I was scammed last year by my friend who wanted to assist me with visa processing to travel out of the country. Since then, my elder brother taught me how to make money online. The first money I made was five hundred dollars (about one hundred and fifty thousand then). I was so happy and didn’t go to school for about two weeks. Instead, I went on a spending spree with my friends.”
Another respondent, also an SS 2 student, of a secondary school in Oshodi, popularly known as TG Boy, said he is involved in online dating. “I use a Facebook account with which I add many foreigners. Sometimes I open an account with a female profile to attract guys. With that I tell them I need money for make-ups, shoes, phones. If I’m using a male profile, after a short time of chatting with the person, I request for money to upgrade my phone.”
Not surprisingly, TG got involved in online scam for vanity. “The reason I got involved is just to have money to flirt with girls, and to belong in the big boys club here. Every week, I take my classmates to a swimming pool, where we enjoy ourselves. Sometimes when I make money, I can buy and declare free drinks for my guys in school.”
Another teenager, fondly called Lastborn by his schoolmates in Oshodi, Lagos, explained that he uses lottery to get money from people online. “I use two sites together; Facebook and Google Voice. I tell them on Facebook that they’ve won some amount of money through a promo. To claim the money, I tell them to pay a redemption fee. For example, if the prize money I’m ‘offering’ is one thousand dollars, I ask the person to pay between fifty to one hundred dollars. The purpose of Google Voice is to convince the person that the Promo is real. Through Google Voice, a friend of the person will claim that he has won the Promo before, so the person can try it out. The money I make is just to enjoy myself, go to clubs and on Fridays, go to parties with my guys at hotels.”
Explaining his involvement, an SS1 student popularly called “Olori” among his friends said, “I just want to have money by all means. I don’t like to beg for money from people, so I use whatever means available to get it.
“I use both online dating through Facebook and by proposing business deals. That one is called “lottery”. For the lottery, I downloaded a lot of retired U.S military officers pictures. I use these pictures to open account on Facebook. With the account, I propose business plans, claiming that I am a retired officer that is now a businessman.
“You know unlike here in Nigeria where we don’t respect our officers, Americans trust their military officers; so they easily believe me (laughing). You don’t need to use long days for the delivery period, just use twenty-four or forty-eight hours, the maga go pay sharpaly (the victim will pay immediately).
To Efon, a 16-year-old secondary school student, his reason for getting involved in Cyber crime is the lifestyle influences of the people already involved. He said “I just love the way “G Boys” live here in Oshodi. The story that got me interested is that of a guy who got married to the white lady he scammed. The lady paid all the fees required for him to travel. So I believe my lucky day would come soon. Currently, I just make five hundred dollars or sometimes two hundred dollars. I use Facebook and TopFace, a dating site.”
Moving a step further from the normal online dating most of his friends are involved in, Pawo, an SS2 student, called his own fraud “Credit card”. He noted “it’s not the normal credit card, but I use forged company I. D card. You just search for a random foreign company online, so you create an ID card that will identify you as a sales representative of the company.
“When you meet someone online, you send the ID Card to them, and also tell them you can get discounts for them if they are willing to purchase the company’s products. When the person searches for the company’s name on Google, he/she will find it there, so they will believe it easily.” Pawo said rather smoothly.
When asked if they were willing to stop the act any time soon, none of the respondents answered in the positive. As to whether this would not truncate their quest for education – most of them are class repeaters, having failed their last promotional exams – they seemed less concerned. As a matter of fact, most of them said they’re ready to quit schooling once they make the big hit (make huge scam proceeds).
On whether their parents are aware of their involvement in the crime, most of them claimed that they no longer stay with their parents and that the people they are staying with do not care what they do with their lives. At best, one of them said they even ask them for money.
