Nov 10
2008Wise People Getting Scammed by African Fools
Filed Under (Uncle Che) by Uncle Che on 10-11-2008
Tagged Under : Africa, Scamming
Have you ever heard of the Nigerian scams? I guess yes. Who hasn’t? Nigeria is a small African country located on the west coast of Africa. Nigerians are well popular in the world as far as scamming is concerned. People of various ages, sex and races in Nigeria rely on deceiving people, especially over the Internet, through false and fraudulent acts, to earn a living. People who involve in such acts are unofficially called “scammers”.
Most of the Nigerian scammers are uneducated illiterates that have learned the act of scamming from a few masters in the field. These guys successfully convince potential victims into believing that they have something they will like to sell very cheap or even give out for free. They do everything possible to provide prove that is undisputable to their victims. They search the web; download photos that they claim are photos of their merchandise and send them to their victims. They even create fake contacts to represent the police of lawyers which further makes their victims believe in them.
What do these scammers claim they have to offer? A Nigerian scammer will force his/her victims into believing one or more of the following
- that there is a large sum of money in their bank that was abandoned by a foreigner who died without specifying a next-of-kin. He will like a foreigner to come and stand as next of kind and collect the money.
- that he is in possession of a large plantation of cash crops like rubber, cocoa, banana, palms…etc and will like to sell it very cheap to a foreigner.
- that he is a very poor parent who is no longer capable of taking care of his kid(s) and will like a foreigner to pay a small amount of money and adopt the child.
- that he is in possession of many pets and will like to sell out a few at a very cheap cost or give them out for free to anyone who promises to take good care of them.
- that he wants to donate his kidney to help anyone in need of it and in return will as just a small favor.
- That he is running an orphanage (or non-profit of any sort) that is of very great importance to the society but lacks funding.
These scammers have a million stories to tell you and believe me; it is very easy to fall for any of them. It is something they have been doing over and over, so they are now professionals. There is no ticklish question that you can ask and use to trick them. They know it all.
How do they succeed in collecting money from their victims, especially when they fake their present location? Let’s take the case of pets. Even when their victims get suspicious and demand delivery before payment, they ask for advance payment for shipping, handling and insurance. Most of them mention Air France as their means of shipment and ask for payment via western union, express union or bank transfer. For those not disclosing their current location, they ask you to pay the money to a relative, friend or non-profit in Africa.
Cameroon is a neighboring country to Nigeria. The Nigerian government has put in place several policies and strategies to fight against scamming. Most of the Nigerian scammers now flee to Cameroon, where the can scam openly and freely. Cameroon is now the second leading African country in the scamming domain. Cameroonians specialize in pet scams, adoption scams, non-profit scams and kidney scams. Most of these scammers will do even disclose the fact that they are in Africa, since everyone is getting aware of the exponential growth of scamming in Africa. They may tell a victim that they are in the US, and will use a virtual US number, which is then forwarded to their real phone numbers.
Most website fight against scamming be restricting IP addresses. This is longer a problem to these foolish African scammers since they now know about proxies.
What can be done to curb or eliminate scamming in Africa? Most of them claim that they scam the “white man” to revenge since Europeans and Americans exploited their African forefathers. Well, there is always a justification, even for wrong things.
Is it true that only greedy people get scamed?
WOW! What a great article! We have heard much about this in England because we get scammed a lot by people in Africa, apparently.
I am not sure what can really be done about it except for us to be more careful about what we give out to strangers and sign up to. If it sounds too good then it probably is.
If you get a scammer and I have had several over the years ask lots of questions, offer to call them back, check them out, rattle them and get them to make a mistake. They nearly always do. It can be a bit of sport for you too, LOL!
I have had scam emails before from Africa telling me that some high ranking person equal to a king or something wants to leave me his millions – please! I cannot believe they actually get people to believe that.
I am not sure whether it is only greedy people who get scammed or desperate people. Some people are so in need of money just to survive that they are blinded by the chance of a quick fix of thousands or millions of pounds with very little effort.
As for their justification part of me can see their point of view. We Europeans did rape and pillage Africa for a long time and the stuff we got up to was disgusting and makes me ashamed of my country’s Empire past. This, however, was a long time ago and cannot be used to allow illegal acts of today. Two wrongs never make a right. I am sure some of them do feel they are getting revenge. More likely they are seeing the quick and easy money they are making from people that seem overly rich in the eyes of an impoverished African.
Perhaps that is the answer – help get Africa out of its immense poverty. It does seem so imbalanced how in Europe we have so much and just over the mediterranean they have so little. In truth, though, we will always have crime because some people just do not have the mental capacity to be civilised and follow simple laws of respect and dignity towards themselves and others.
Hi Haydn,
I am very happy with your elaborate comment, and especially due to the fact that you are very objective. Well, as you say, two wrongs can’t make a right. That’s enough reason for “us” (Africans) to stop scamming but since most of “us” don’t want to, you can really help “us” by being more vigillant and alert about any deal that concerns money…
First of all Nigeria is large country in Africa and most populace black country in the world.Its only few Nigerians that are into scams,Nigeria has the most educated people in Africa.Nigeria is the 4th oil producer in the whole world.Any dark skin person can claim to be a Nigerian to scam others.Nigeria has helped in maintaining peace in Africa places like Liberia and Sierra leone where they sent their troops.So don’t generalise about a country that you know little or nothing about.Have an open and unbias mind towards other people,you can educate and warn people about these scams by publishing some of their scam emails just as i do on my blog.
As far as am concerned there are scammers all over the world everyone has to be careful.Let us as Africans stop selling ourselves cheap to outsiders.Greedy people and scammers are the ones that fall victim to these scams.What of the monies stolen my corrupt African leaders that they lodged in western banks that are never returned or accounted for? Is this not your so called wise people scamming your so called African fools? What are the real intentions of the wise people when they fall for scam? What is your definition a wise person? Will a wise person reap where he did not sow? Will you win a lottery that you did not buy ticket for?
dear uncle che…
such was a great piece you wrote! i admire your tenacity to call a spade a spade. and admittedly your kind is getting rare in this get-rich-quick generation we live in. i applaud your efforts at stopping scams [in africa].
and in your piece too, you’ve helped each one of us to look up and raise our consciousness and give a thorough scrutiny to our conscience…are we greedy? are we misled? are we justified? are we vindictive? are we opportunistic?
thank you. thank you. thank you very much.
as in life, most people are guilty of one crime or the other. and the greatest crime i’ve come to realize is to condemn and misrepresent a whole race! may we never fall into such madness…
did you goof?
you considered nigeria to be a small country; in what sense? you considered nigeria to be a haven of scammers? are you correct? have you given it a thought that you can be grossly mistaken? are you not perpetuating an age-long madness of stereotyping nigeria as a chief scam country?
i want mercy not judgment. why not give the facts and just the facts. how much do you know about nigeria? and where have you been in nigeria. will it not surprise you to hear that more aliens than nigerians staunchly claim to be nigera?
and they give a dog a bad name to hang it!
not to mince words, you put up a nice piece; but there’s more to what you look than you see…let’s always look at the whole picture; not promoting a propagandic stereotype.
i look forward to seeing this comment posted if really you’re out to be genuine.
thank you, uncle che.
sincerely yours,
brother beibee.
being a Nigerian, your judgment is already clouded but don’t forget I was hard on Cameroon too. I will look for solid facts and present them her if that is what you want.