Multinational Crisis

Part One: Nigeria

You have all heard about Nigerians, Nigeria in general. The infamous scammer country. But let’s have a real conversation. Let me give you some extremely boring stats, so we are on a level playing field, on my thoughts. I’ll be as brief as possible considering, no one wants an hour long dissertation on economic issues.

Nigeria has a population of over 237 million people, living in a country the size of California, Nevada and Utah. The U.S. is ten times larger in size. The median age of their country is 18 whereas ours is 39. The demographics show and even spilt male versus female. Their citizens live approximately 260 per square kilometer and more than half live in urban areas.

The life expectancy for them is 64.8 years for females, and 62.2 for males. Compare our life expectancy in the states , which is 74.8. That’s a large difference. The top cause of death is malaria followed by respiratory illnesses that include tuberculosis. Notice I didn’t state cancer?

In fact it's not even in their top ten. Cancer is the number two reason for us, with cardiovascular disease at number one. They only have a 17 percent chance of death from cardiovascular disease, and it is declining. Nigeria’s cancer rate is 113 cases per 100,000, while ours is 463 per 1000,000. There is little obesity in adults at only 24 percent among adults and 3.8 percent in children. I guess overabundant living causes cancer and chronic diabetes.

Financially, 61 percent of Nigerians are poor and live below the income poverty rate. Does anyone realize, ours is only 10 percent? That is still too large a number and shameful. Over half the nation is dirt poor, and I mean dirt poor. I have seen pictures of many of their homes and no one should live this way in this modern world. I talk about that in more detail later. The poverty in the country has several causes.

Lack of higher education, jobs available, and basic essentials, keep the people in shambles. The number one cause of extreme poverty, is their government. Corruption is systemic at all levels. Nepotism and entrenched bribery, along with vote rigging keeps government employees in power. This keeps the dragon fed and everyone else in want. So, I hope I have given everyone a simple picture of the nation’s conditions.

Let me address the issue that is a world wide concern. Scamming, swindling, defrauding, cyber crimes, or whatever you want to call it, runs rampant in Nigeria. It has given the people a bad name and reputation. Regrettably. Two out of ten, of its young, from age 17 and up are involved in full time scamming online. Yes 2 out of every 10, you read that right. Of the part of the population that are scamming as a full time career, over 80 percent are teens. But it’s not limited to teens. The age range of these entrepreneurs is 18-34, of which students comprise the majority. I don’t know about you or your children, but at those ages, we were all going to frat parties, getting acquainted with our now, enemy Jose Cuervo, and for the most part having a good time, as it should be. Adulting changes that, well, for most of us.

Many of the scammers are recent graduates as well. Surprised? You should be, That doesn’t happen here, for the most part. Graduates with no prospects for careers, and not enough to bribe their way into a job, choose this life of crime. I am talking about engineers, biomedical graduates, mechanical fields. It is prevalent in all types of graduates. It’s fast money and many can and have become wealthy doing it, at other’s expense.

I won’t defend their criminal activities, but I came to find out a great many things over the course of over a year. This case of crime and punishment is not cut and dry. I hope over the next couple parts, I can shed light on it. My information does not, in any way, make scamming and deceit okay and acceptable. Something indeed, needs to be done, but you cannot incarcerate an entire nation. They need hope, they need guidance, they need someone to treat them as human beings with understanding, they need solutions.

I interacted with over two hundred scammers. Yes, two hundred and counting to be honest. The men I dealt with varied in ages from 17 to 35. Students, graduates, and every day joes, alike. They all tried to lure me into their scam. They all impersonated celebrities, musicians, and the famous. But don’t, sit back and think that was the limit. Many came at me, as Americans, servicemen here and abroad, businessmen, and so on. I have “met” with many in every category.

You might wonder how I got the information I will be writing about and I am going to tell you upfront. I treated them as humans. My first encounter with an imposter was my lesson is naiveté and discernment. I was a lamb out to slaughter. After the first one, I did some ground work. I trolled the internet and watched the celebrity feeds and reels. I watched what and how people commented and with the shock of seeing so many being deceived. I needed to do something.

I started by private messaging each woman I saw posting comments on these pages and reels. I noticed every time, there were several profiles using the same celebrity name and likeness, replying to them. All asked to move the conversation to other sites, like Zangi, Telegram, Signal, and eventually WhatsApp. It was not limited to those, alone. Shockingly, A few used private messaging, and even Microsoft Teams. I had to find a way to change all of this.

The women were my prime concern. Lonely, bored, middle aged women, looking for the dream. A celebrity romance or connection. Silly, at first thought for most of us, but I promise it is anything but that, and that made me take action. I needed to know more, I wanted to know more. I wanted to out these men and take them down.

What I discovered changed my approach. I was dealing with a hydra. I was one lone wolf with no pack, trying to out maneuver a predator. I was losing. I actually did lose. There is learning in failure and I became adept at approaching these hustlers.

Over the year, I outed many. Especially, the unrepentant. I didn’t have any sympathy for the ones that don’t want to change. I also got to know many of them, the real them. No easy matter, getting them to admit what they are and what they do, but I did. I’ll share how I did that as we go on.

I hope to touch on the scammers, the women (and men), being scammed, and the industry that will in the long run suffer the consequences of inaction. I will also discuss social medias position and actions, or better stated, inaction. I hope you keep reading.

Tomorrow, I will get into more detail on the scams and how they work, and the scammers and the tools they use. I will tell you what I know of them and give some encouraging information.

Please trust me, when I say these are a beautiful people who are not cruel, but rather, kind and not what they appear. We have a lot of misconceptions about them, and they also have misconceptions about us, that rationalize their lack of empathy for their victims. Not an excuse or a green light. I reiterate this. Stay tuned.