2017-02-04



EMEKA IBEMERE reports that internet-based fraud, which used to be the stuff of young, starry- eyed youths, now appeals to bankers and, even, the police, who help them cover their tracks.

The boys, about five of them, adorning ear rings on at least one ear lobe, shiny eyes, slicky hair, saggy jeans, body-hugging shirts and bent shoulders as if somewhat deformed, alight from a jeep and make their ways to the security doors of one of the old generation banks in Ikotun, Lagos.

Upon sighting them, the bank’s security staffs and the mobile policemen attached to the bank break out in a smile and stretch out their hands for handshakes.

They are even on first-name basis. That is how much they know each other.

One of the policemen offers to take them into the banking hall, where he parts the crowd and takes them to teller who breaks out in a huge grin, calls them by their first names and sets about attending to them.

While this little drama plays on, other customers take the back seat through no choosing of their own, as they wonder how important these lads must be to relegate all of them to the background.

Then, someone hissed: “Jobless, 419 boys.”

Only then did it dawn on many that the lads who command so much respect and awe may be advance free fraudsters, popularly known as ‘Yahoo! Yahoo! Boys’.

In all branches of various banks, this special treatment is handed these lads as they turn up with their ill-gotten wealth. Wore, bank workers help them facilitate easy withdrawal of their money, apparently from abroad, without cursory checks and proper investigation, before releasing same to them.

More than a few times, officers of the Nigerian Police Force have been fingered for their involvement in aiding and abetting advanced-fee fraud.

LEADERSHIP Weekend understands that recent raids by the police on cyber cafes are meant to enrich their pockets, get ‘hush’ money from the suspects and leave them after haphazard searches have been conducted.

This business which involves, on the whole, illiterates, graduate, school certificate-holders and drop-outs, aged between 16 and 38, has seen these young people become financially buoyant enough to register with exotic clubs, party non-stop, buy expensive jewelries, enjoy the company of exotic girls and live in expensive apartments.

The undergraduates amongst them come to class with expensive cars and live off-campus in beautiful houses, where poor electricity supply is the least of their troubles. The base line is that they have no any visible means of livelihood but live big and drive the best cars.

Millions of naira, dollars, pounds sterling and euros are wired into the nation’s banks daily, through the activities of scammers who have developed new ways to try to con people all over the world to part with their money, no thanks to the effort of foreign collaborators.

The emergence of a variety of social media outlets – Facebook, Whatsapp, Badoo, Instagram and other new media platforms – seemingly makes it simpler for them to defraud their victims.

“There would be no 419 scam if there are no greedy, credulous and criminally-minded victims ready to reap where they did not sow,” an official of the Economic & Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) explained to LEADERSHIP Weekend.

Thus, in a desperate effort to contain the embarrassment brought by internet scammers to the country, the Nigerian government established the EFCC . However, in spite of the commission’s existence, advanced-fee fraud thrives, even though the commission says it has secured the conviction of over 288 persons, since 2012, due to internet fraud.

The scam typically involves promising the victim a significant share of a large sum of money, in return for a small up-front payment, which the fraudster requires in order to obtain the large sum. If a victim makes the payment, the fraudster either invents a series of further fees for the victim, or simply disappears.

The number “419” refers to the section of the Nigerian Criminal Code which deals with fraud, the charges and penalties for offenders.

One of their stock-in- trade is collecting names and email addresses of people who leave messages on obituary site guest books and contacting them with a request for money, supposedly on behalf of the bereaved person; sending complimentary messages to bloggers and article authors (both online and in print) as a way of establishing a friendship that, sooner or later, results in a cash-call attached to a tale of woe; offering to buy your Internet domain name, then asking you to visit a site (their site) where you have to pay to have it valued and using Microsoft Word documents as attachments.

These contain details of the scam story but, because they are not in the main body of the e-mail, they often don’t get picked up by scam detectors in your security software.

Below is a typical advance fee fraud letter which may have been broadcast to one million people as you read:

Dear friend, how are you doing with your entire family. Hope fine?Forgive my ire if this message comes to you as a surprise. I got your contact when I was searching for a foreign reliable partner. I am Mr. Budi Kaya, the head of file

Department in Bank of Africa (BOA). In my department, I discovered an abandoned sum of $US10.5 million. The above sum was resulted from an over-invoiced contract, executed, commissioned and paid for project by ZACA Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, about 13 years ago by a foreign contractor who died along with his family in the Asia Earthquake disaster tsunami in Indonesia and, since I got the information about his death, I learnt that his supposed next of kin or relation died alongside, leaving nobody behind for the claim. As a civil servant, I can’t operate a foreign account; that is why I require your assistance to claim the fund as the beneficiary. If you find this proposal acceptable, the total sum above will be sheared as follows: 50 per cent for me, 45 per cent for you and 5 per cent for any expenses incidental to the transfer.

Note: You have to keep everything secret, [so] as to enable the transfer move very smoothly into the account you will prove to our bank. I am waiting to your reply and respond immediately. Contact me through my private email: (budikaya@rediffmail.com). Yours faithfully, Mr. Budi Kaya.

Online versions of the scam originate primarily in the United States, the United Kingdom, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Togo, South Africa, Benin, the Netherlands and Spain.

The scam messages often claim to originate from Nigeria. Over time, though, this has been proved to be untrue.

In the past, many who responded did not have money to complete the transaction needed to get to the millions. In order to get around the issue and to keep a willing victim in their hold, they have developed financiers who would give the victim a loan until they receive the ‘trunk box’ of money.

Also, before now, these young people could be easily spotted in cyber cafes in areas like FESTAC, Oshodi, Ajah, Okota (Isolo), Apapa, Orile, Ajao Estate, Jakande – all in Lagos – doing their deals and making their money from unsuspecting foreigners and Nigerians alike.

With the growing appeal of the clandestine conning method, many bankers have failed to refuse the allure, as some bank tellers have either cashed in on the business or helped the scammers obtain the particulars of their banks’ customers, granting them access to breach the banks’ databases, LEADERSHIP Weekend understands.

However, with huge improvements in the digital communications, the number of Yahoo! boys who turn up at cyber cafes have reduced drastically. They have resorted to ‘working’ from their homes, with lesser chances of being discovered by the police, the cyber-crime division of the EFCC or the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

Recently, though, a new generation bank handed over to operatives of the EFCC two secondary school leavers whose bank accounts were found to hold a whopping N18.7m. The lads, who confessed to be unemployed, said they got the staggering sums through the Internet.

True, it may look as if it is becoming more difficult to get to online conmen, but the EFCC’s spokesperson, Wilson Uwujiaren, does not think so. For him, the mill of justice grinds ever so slowly and, over time, the noose of the law would finally snap the neck of internet scamming in Nigeria.

“Since they now work from home, we are monitoring the nation’s cyber-space and, much as it does not appear as if we are doing much, this whole thing is under watch of the EFCC and, with time, we will come down on them. We need to make Nigeria’s cyber-space safe again.

“We can’t have all these crooks giving the nation a bad name. Whether they are in the banks, in their houses or in their workplaces, we will fish them out. They always make mistakes and we will get to them,” he assured.

On Wednesday, December 14, 2016 the EFCC arraigned one Chike Akwittis alias ‘Dr Justified Isioma Nnaemeka’ also known as ‘Emeralds Chike’ before Justice Sylvanus C. Oriji of the Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting in Apo, Abuja, on a four-count charge bordering on marriage scam and theft.

Akwittis allegedly entered into a fake marriage agreement with a road safety official and, in the process, swindled her of the sum of N6.7m. The offence contravenes Section 1 (1) (a) and is punishable under Section 1 (3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006.

The EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujiaren, told our correspondent that the accused was also accused of stealing $3000 belonging to his boss’ wife, claiming that the chief priest in his village said it was a ‘spirit’ that stole the money.

“By this act of theft, the accused has breached Section 286 (1) and punishable under Section 287 of the Penal Code,” Uwujiaren said.

Upon arraignment, the defendant pleaded not guilty to the four counts when they were read to him.

In view of his plea, counsel to EFCC, Ola T. Oji, urged the court to fix a date for hearing and asked that the defendant be remanded in prison, pending trial.

However, the defence counsel, U. C. Oparaujo, through an oral application, prayed the court to grant his client bail. Relying on Section 158 and 165 of the Administration of the Criminal Justice Act, 2015, Oparaujo said that the defendant had never breached the administrative bail earlier granted him by the EFCC.

Responding, Oji argued that, though the defendant had not defaulted in the administrative bail granted him by the commission, the game has changed as he is now before a court of law. He added that the defendant does not live within the jurisdiction of the court.

However, Justice Oriji admitted the defendants to bail in the sum of N3.5m with two sureties in like sum, with the condition that the sureties must reside within the F.C.T.

Their addresses, the judge ordered, must be verified by either the registrar of the court or the EFCC.

One of the sureties must be a civil servant not below salary Grade Level 12. The Lagos State police commands spokeswoman, SP Dolapo Opeyemi Badmos, refused to pick her call to ascertain the degree of the progress which the police force has made in its bid to curb the excesses of the Yahoo! boys.

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