By Anthony Akinola,
A friend once wrote to me with great excitement, rejoicing at what
the Good Lord had done for him! A so-called company based in Europe had looked
into his profile and decided to award him an unsolicited contract worth
millions of dollars. My friend was to execute the contract in North America
where he resided; everything looked very easy on paper.
What was not easy was the demand for a mandatory deposit of £5,000
(about $7,000) in a nominated British bank. The money, it was said, would be
the legal fee for finalizing all necessary documents.
My friend didn't have the money they were asking for; he hadn't
seen me for many years but believed that I should by now be really wealthy. He
wrote for help, promising to reward me once he had been paid his millions.
Maybe not having much to throw around has a way of making one
thoughtful, as the inability to help led me into making enquiries about the
nature of his' contract'. Alas, the contract was for my friend to prospect for
oil and there was nothing in his life history to suggest that he was into such
business.
I told him that what had been done for him - the promise of
becoming a millionaire in a matter of days - would not be permanent because it
was not done by the Lord! My friend must have been disappointed by my advice
and did not communicate with me for months. He wrote recently to say that he
had realised that someone was trying to exploit his gullibility!
The '419' thing, exploiting the gullibility or stupidity of
another, earned Nigeria some notoriety in Europe and America. However, 419 is a
universal phenomenon. One frequently gets emails from those claiming that they
want to part with fortunes for one reason or another.
They talk of the millions that they have in some distant nation;
there are also emails congratulating you on the lottery you have won without
having bought a ticket! 'Delete on arrival' is my attitude to such frivolous
emails, but this may not be the same with those unfamiliar with the antics of
fraudsters.
Nigerians are duped every day. In fact, my name was used a few
months ago in defrauding a friend of tens of thousands of naira. Of course, he
is to blame for his stupidity or ignorance - not availing himself of various
opportunities to expose the fraudster for what he was.
My friend had sought advice on the prospect of his son studying
for a post-graduate degree in a British university. All I ever promised was to
send a list of universities that offered the course he intended to study.
Knowing what 'wanting to travel abroad' is like in Nigeria, someone must have
been telling others of an impending travel to Europe and that one Anthony
Akinola was helping in that respect. All the fraudster ever needed was credible
information, the 'magic' with which to entrap a potential victim, of which the
friend in question unfortunately became one.
Suddenly, one morning, my friend phoned with great excitement,
saying that he had "paid the money". The excitement in his voice
quickly changed when I sought to know "what money"? Apparently, a
fraudster had phoned my friend to say he was from the Consulate and that his
son's proposed education in the United Kingdom had been concluded.
I asked my friend if he had handed his money over to a member of
staff of the British Consulate, but to my surprise, he had travelled all the
way from Ekiti to give money to a fraudster, in a motor park, somewhere in Osun
State!
There cannot but be questions here that touch on the intelligence
of the individual. How could someone who neither had a Nigerian passport, nor
had applied for admission to a foreign country, have his educational journey
already concluded?
Could a motor park have been the right place to hand over money to
someone who was purporting to act on behalf of a consulate - someone whose
identity you did not know or verify? Why would someone not phone to confirm if
indeed a friend in a foreign nation, such as Great Britain, had mandated a
'transaction' involving such a colossal sum of money?
When you say that the right questions should have been asked,
there are Nigerians who would tell you that the fraudster might have 'charmed'
his victim. Is it not true that supposedly educated Nigerians often warn others
against answering calls originating from certain telephone numbers, not least
because of the fear of ritual murder?
The myth of the assumed supernatural fraudster notwithstanding, Nigerians
with relatives abroad should be warned of the antics of the fraudster. They
should not part with their money for that imaginary car that the
"masquerade" has been mandated to clear from the port! The media must
continue to warn the public of the antics of fraudsters in our midst.
Akinola wrote from Oxford, UK
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