With the advent of coronavirus in Nigeria, Security has to be augmented.
Before coronavirus came, Nigeria’s modus operandi had been unchanging. Security was in place to curb crimminals in the society. We were then familiar with internet fraudsters (Popularly known as yahoo boys).
But now, there is so much to consider, to ensure that the economy and businesses at large, aren’t ruined by ghost criminals, which I refer to here as an individual who commits crime but doesn’t appear by any salient records to be a criminal, hence thwarting arraignment by lack of evidence.
With the Stay-at-home pang, these ghost criminals are devising new strategies and tactics to defraud ignorant or unsuspecting Nigerians of their hard earned income.
Most Nigerians at home during the lockdown, being Jobless, are with meager funds. They have very little to go through, as they go online to search for loans, call friends or family members that are working, and publicly solicit help.
Yet, there are some in particular that would rather cheat their way in, rather than strive.
They develop fraudulent services online, which is based on the interest of most Nigerians.
One worthy of note happens to circulate on WhatsApp. The criminals create spam texts on suspicious websites, and enlist spammers to promote them.
The spammers can be ordinary WhatsApp users who were informed to share to WhatsApp or accomplices that Work for them. Either of which we can’t directly ascertain.
Below is a WhatsApp post in a group:
The official website for Aliko Dangote Foundation is https://www.dangote.com/foundation, and there isn’t any report on weekly allowance given to Nigerians.
Checking the link, A form was immediately displayed without much needed information about the so-called weekly allowance.
And then filling in the form with jargon to test its authenticity, no form of validation was performed, as all was accepted (even at that, form validation doesn’t entail the offer is valid, but these ones are clueless).
After clicking apply now, I got:
As these Nigerians are in need of money, they will start sharing to their WhatsApp groups and Contacts.
However, to their dismay, they might realise that no package is forthcoming, and probably learn their lessons not to trust offers like this again.
But then, the dead is done, they had given away vital information (if they actually did, and for the sake of the package, they would) for free!
This doesn’t get better, as one might actually wonder what the ghost criminals would do with the details – Phone number, House address, and Email address.
And so, I do not just aim to create awareness for this particular infamy, but also to forestall future ones by awareness and security, especially in moments like coronavirus.
Irrespective of whether you are in dire need, never share your private details online, unless you have confirmed the source to be genuine or from authoritative online media.
