hahah well well oooooooooooo!!

god bless united nigeria and its people !!

I'm sorry to cut in and throw in this observation.

In many European countries, the easiest way to spell 'N.I.G.E.R.I.A.' is 419 - I know this because I travel a lot. A reported experience in Sweden made me re-think tho whole question of who really is the dupe: the scammer or the willing victim?

Scenario 1.

A bogus email from a 'popular' or 'well-known' official in a '[b]C[/b]restal [b]B[/b]ank [b]I[/b]nternational PLC' was sent to a Swedish guy. The mold was the same: a large sum of money was lying in a deposit account in the said bank to the tune of $ ¤¤¤, ¤¤¤, ¤¤¤ (millions of US dollars). The 'official' seeks a foreign partner with high business discretion for the transfer of the funds which was part of the loot from Abacha's family. If this Swedish partner was willing to play ball, his cut would be 10% of the transfer. All that was required was that he indicated his willingness, and had a 'functional' account that the money could be transferred into.

Swedish guy (SvG) makes a few calls to his proposer with the numbers provided in the email. He delays, and after a while he decides to try it out. He further asks a few questions to satisfy his curiosity, and then tries to make his move to follow instructions. Proposer from 'Crestal Bank International PLC' asks if he could confirm SvG's foreign account by transfering some money into it, to which the latter consented. Then $5, 000.00 (Five thousand US dollars) was transferred - and SvG was overjoyed! It just was unbelievable! Pronto, he sent details of his account to his CBI PLC proposer, who promptly acknowledged receipt. Two days later, another $7,000.00 (seven thousand US dollars) was wired into SvG's account, and by this time SvG's trust had been completely bought over. He was offered the suggestion of visiting his proposer in Nigeria for more detailed and 'careful' instruction on the 'transfer' of the remaining funds - all expenses paid, no questions asked. SvG grabbed the offer.

Fast forward.

All seemed to go well, and a forthnight later SvG got a priority mail (as emailing was 'too sensitive for such transactions at this time'), stating that the funds would be 'wired' in batches: first, 35%; then 45%; and another 15%; and that last 5% to another account that he might provide. He did - his wife's business account.

Another two weeks passed. No phone calls, no priority mails, no nothing. Perhaps now, the transfer has 'matured', so SvG went over to see. Both accounts had just SEK67,700 (sixty seven thousand, seven hundred swedish krona, or about $6,780 - six thousand seven hundred and eighty US dollars at the time) left! Then he blew his sirens and whimpered - he'd been duped to the equivalent of $115, 000.00 (one hundred and fifteen thousand USD). Attempts to trace the destination of the transfer revealed that it was not to the Crestal-Bank-International-PLC Nigerian address - it was done right there in Sweden!

Now my question is: who was the crook - the "Crestal Bank International PLC" scammer or the SvG willing victim??

Oh, it was reported that SvG did try to 'check out' if Crestal Bank Int'l PLC really existed - by calling the phone numbers the scammer left him! He was indeed 'careful' - by not initially notifying the police before grabbing the 'opportunity' to be rich. He was really a shrewd 'businessman' who was all too willing to help loot Nigeria's stolen wealth as long as Abacha was dead and gone.

And only when 'kasala' happens do we read it in the news!! That's when you see European and Western media with headlines screaming: "Another victim to the notorious Nigerian 419 scam!" Nobody stops a while to see the European "victim" as equally criminally minded as was the scammer. Abeg, make I hear word. The so-called "victim" deserves to be locked up in jail!!

Certainly there are unsuspecting victims we could sympathise with; but when the issues involved indicate that the European "victim" was willing to grab the offer to be "rich" from stolen wealth, he or she should not be seen as a "victim" but as a criminal!

I have said it before. Greed may not be the best virtue but, being greedy doesn't make you a criminal. The only criminals are the scammers. They are the ones breaking the LAW!

hmmmmmm being blah blah blah doesnt emmm,   u think? na wahoooooooo !!foolish statement ! god bless united nigeria!

superman:

hmmmmmm being blah blah blah doesnt emmm, u think? na wahoooooooo !!foolish statement ! god bless united nigeria!

It's easy to understand why Nigerians are easy targets when negative things are to be reported. We dont have high self esteem. We regard every other race higher than ourselves and we are always ever too willing to condemn ourselves so they do it knowing that majority of us will concur.

How many times do you hear any American saying that Americans are fraudsters and scammers? They are much more fraudulent than Nigerians are. I get more scam phone calls from American companies than any others. You get phoney lotteries that you never played but you are supposesd to have won all from some funny American Companies. It's not limited to Americans, the Brits too and many other nationals but we despise ourselves so they help us to bring us down and damage our reputation.

I am not saying that we should not point out that there are some bad elements within our society but there are good and bad elements in every society.

In a country of Over 140 million, i can attest less than 1 percent is polluting our image and yet every where you go you hear of Nigerians scammers.
What is the current administration doing to revamp this image?