Scammers never give up

Living large has become the way of life of big superstars, a select group of the cognoscenti, the glitterati social climbers, frauds, kidnappers and armed robbers. Those who work hard never show off their wealth because every penny is accounted for and the sweat beads of hard work is never far from their memory. For those who come into money by means other than hard work, they flaunt everything, body, soul and the spirit. Everything is measured by money and everything can be bought. By their estimation, everyone has a price and if you are not willing to be traded or play ball they are puzzled and are looking for new ways to solve you, they consider you a puzzle. That t is not to say there aren’t hard working people who play hard and flaunt it but more often than not, old money and money from hard work does not wear sequins. They do not need glitter.

Be that as it may, most members of the millennial club see the show-offs as their role model. The media spread of these sorts of people especially on social media and within the circle of entertainers worldwide has not helped matters. Musical videos often talk about money and money is constantly on display as the answer to everything. In fact, most of these videos show the musician with wads of cash on his head, spread on the bed or being tucked into a video vixen’s breast and this is always accompanied by a pool party, too much food and lots of champagne. These images remain stuck in the minds of an impressionable person or even those who have been working hard all their lives and are about to change and try to become these images by all means. On line all kinds of new, aspiring and old frauds are showing off their money and making it seem easy. No one tells the kids or anyone for that matter, how they made their money. All they see is the money, how they got it is irrelevant. So they are now ready to try their luck in the scam department.

Enter the Nigerian 419 Kingpin and all his accomplices worldwide. There are also small time frauds, the big game, small game yahoo, yahoo boys all processed by the same system and society above. No one asks how the money was made when an Evans turns up in our villages with brand new cars and is building fantabulous houses. No one cares. All we do is tell our children, can you not see Evans, can’t you be like him? We also cook for them and idolize them and we line up our daughters for him to marry, practically begging him to sleep with them. Some of our traditional rulers reward them with traditional titles and we refer to them as our illustrious daughters and sons. Take a look at Ozubulu, where a church was built allegedly by a drug dealing warlord.  But they abound across the country. Religious leaders are not immune and they have them build churches and roads and politicians align with them. In all of this, they first started by attaching themselves to a kingpin, making them their role models and growing from internet scams to drug dealers and kidnap kingpins.

I only just wonder how after being caught, they serve time, they return to the society and continue their fraud. It is such a tragedy. Today you cannot open your mail without seeing an email about a new newsletter from your bank for which you are being charged and when you call your bank they tell you it’s a scam. I have received many emails from banks I do not have anything to do with and they send me statements and information. Then there are those who tell you they have met you before and pretend to know you when they are trying to get a buck off you. Have you been receiving mails from friend’s emails saying they are stranded and need you to send some money when in fact they have hacked a friend’s mail. These internet fraudsters continue to grow and I am not sure if they do not know that these are old fashion scams and we are now wiser. But they continue to try hoping there would be one innocent or gullible person who would fall for their scam. There are also those who call you to pay for a contract you never applied for and the girls who call men’s numbers from complimentary cards or event brochures. These calls are random hoping to find a guy who is ready to play. These are digital prostitutes and they take your money and blackmail you for the rest of your live. Really scammers never give up and all kinds of Ponzi schemes and agricultural investment schemes are all over the place. Do be careful, everywhere you turn there is a scammer not far from you. Now everything has moved offshore in a big way and Nigerian scammers in consonance with big time fraudsters abroad are now running the Nigerian scammers in diaspora Ltd. All this the next time I write. Stay on this page.

Eugenia Abu