I and some friends are trying to setup a campaign to stop 419.

Since we use the internet often, we are fed up with these scammers in our midst doing serious damage to our person and country.

Today, when you mention Nigeria, the world sees you like a thief. No body trusts us. 419ers have done a lot of damage to this county. Yet we’ve don’t nothing about it. Read an article: Evil things Nigerians do online at:

http://www.oxcheck.net/4.html

Please suggest ways to stop 419. What do you think can be done to stop the menace? What can be done online or offline? Should it be left to government alone? Are the banks responsible? Can cyber cafés do something? Can the ordinary Nigerian at home or aboard do something?

Good post ,i would suggest that admin monitor the thread and make sure that everyone stick to the point ,especially those who would try to one tribe alone ,this would help everyone to stay on the topic and contribute there own solutions .
I would suggest that we report any letter we got from the 419 guys to the EFCC , i would also as they say that charity begins at home ,the kind of good image that we want the rest of the world to see in us ,let us show that image first in our personal lives , we have a great nation and should not let a few people spoil it for the rest of us .

Reporting 419 letters to EFCC and preaching against it will do nothing or very little to stop this problem our dear country is facing. Employment, employment, employment! Employment is the answer to the problem. Do you know many graduates in Nigeria who are jobless talkless of the uneducated ones and nobody cares about them? Most of these guys join 419, robbery gangs etc because there is almost no way out.

419 will surely reduce if private individuals (home & abroad) who are up and doing could do more to provide employment and our leaders stop depositing our money in the western banks, let them use the stolen money to establish businesses within Nigeria.

That's my 2cents.

Place hidden cameras in all internet cafes so that anyone using a computer at any time has a picture on file. The EFCC can trace the IP address

to the Internet Provider & cafe and the cafe management can show the pictures of those using any pc at any point in time (should the need arise).  QED.

I had a similar intention in mind - Now, most of the previous thread is talking about home. What about abroad, europe, US and Canada?

Identifying a 419 Culprit
My opinion is if you have a neighbour, or know of someone that
1) has no job,
2) no concrete business and
3) you see him driving big cars and
4) dressing up in lavish designers wears and
5) spending money as if he plucked it off the tree at the back of his yard,
6) You see different sizes of parcels arriving every day
7) Catch him looking through other peoples mails
and many other stuff shown here in America on ABC, Oprah show, 20-20

We should report them to the authorities, and give them sufficient evidence to follow up.

Another idea is posting pictures of them online in their big lifestyle - and seek an explanation of their unknown wealth - some might be legit, but if you are clean - chances are you have noting to hide. Right?

My 2 cents on this topic

SavvyLanre:

I had a similar intention in mind - Now, most of the previous thread is talking about home. What about abroad, europe, US and Canada?

Identifying a 419 Culprit
My opinion is if you have a neighbour, or know of someone that
1) has no job,
2) no concrete business and
3) you see him driving big cars and
4) dressing up in lavish designers wears and
5) spending money as if he plucked it off the tree at the back of his yard,
6) You see different sizes of parcels arriving every day
7) Catch him looking through other peoples mails
and many other stuff shown here in America on ABC, Oprah show, 20-20

We should report them to the authorities, and give them sufficient evidence to follow up.

Another idea is posting pictures of them online in their big lifestyle - and seek an explanation of their unknown wealth - some might be legit, but if you are clean - chances are you have noting to hide. Right?

My 2 cents on this topic

You might be disappointed with your technic of identifing 419. Nowadays lots and lots of people make lots of legitimate money on the internet from home full time or just been a succesful investor. Point 7 is the only one I agree with. Most of the time you neighbour will not even know what you are into. I have friends doing ebay fulltime, forex, day trading etc. You don't see them going to work like everyone else and they drive flasy car with legitimate money. Becareful in your identifing process THIS IS THE INFORMATION AGE you can be a £ millionaire by sitting in your room. RNB ringtone Nigerian guy in London made his first £million in front of his computer at home. Your method might end up harrassing lots of innocent businessmen/women working from home.

Good point loads. Thing is i don't understand point7. Do this point mean when you forget to log off after using the net or are there other ways via which people could be viewing your mailbox and if so how do you catch them?

Dumsky,

As in post box where you receive your letters at home.

Loads:

You might be disappointed with your technic of identifing 419. Nowadays lots and lots of people make lots of legitimate money on the internet from home full time or just been a succesful investor. Point 7 is the only one I agree with. Most of the time you neighbour will not even know what you are into. I have friends doing ebay fulltime, forex, day trading etc. You don't see them going to work like everyone else and they drive flasy car with legitimate money. Becareful in your identifing process THIS IS THE INFORMATION AGE you can be a £ millionaire by sitting in your room. RNB ringtone Nigerian guy in London made his first £million in front of his computer at home. Your method might end up harrassing lots of innocent businessmen/women working from home.

@Loads

I agree with what you said - yes, we do not want to harrass innocent people in the process. I am definitely open to other suggestions.
However, If you know your neighbour and talk to them - you would have an idea of what they do - they would be able to intelligently talk about whatever they do. For example, i work from home close to 75% of the time. And, do frequent travels, but my neighbours have an idea of what i do for a living - my friends are aware of the type of job i do.
Chances that people can differentiate a 419er to an innocent worker or business man is very high in comparison to making such a mistake and harrasing innocent people.

As, i said this are my 2 cents - we cannot seat down and watch while a few irresponsible morons with no regards for the good name of our ancestors and home country Nigeria, and for other innocent individuals working a 9-5 job, own legitimate businesses with image tarnished due to the few unscrupulous elements we might know living around us.

Abeg, if you know anyone - expose them, or get them to turn from their evil doings - paying back whatever have been stolen .

See: What Can Honest Nigerians Do to Stop 'Nigerian Scams'?

there is nothing in this world that annoys me more than human stupidity, let me put it this way, there willl alway be a prey for the predator, if u dont get it , another form, there is no fake without the originallll, stop wasting ur freaking time , 419 AS COME to stay.

MP007:

there is nothing in this world that annoys me more than human stupidity, let me put it this way, there willl alway be a prey for the predator, if u don't get it , another form, there is no fake without the originallll, stop wasting your freaking time , 419 AS COME to stay.

And your point is ?

why do you want to stop 419?

Why dont you rather stop the greedy people from responding.

I was ashamed of myself as a Nigeria when I saw the damages these people as causing this country. I did not know that it is all these bad. I was at a ghana forum 2days ago when I come across a topic talking about scam in Nigeria.

When I followed the link provided in the forum I become more annoyed that ever. Imagine what damaged this has caused this country.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHphszkawoU&mode=related&search=

After watching this I have made up my mind to join force with anyone that is ready for us to fight this menace. It is really eating deep into this country.

While It is not going to be easy but if 5 people can form an anti 419 club, we can go to schools, cyber cafes, NYSC orientation camp to get members and from there we can move on. Am so unhappy that I wonder what I will face when I travel for my master by September.

Please let us rise and help make this country great

babasin:

why do you want to stop 419?

Why don't you rather stop the greedy people from responding.

While I agree with you that it is their greed that lead them to be defrauded, but it is causing more damage to us than them.
So it is better for us to fight the 419 and even attack them because of their greed to defraud our county. We can not attack their greed without fighting the 419.

The real 419 in nigeria is some body like atiku,honestly,i used to work in nordstrom in washington dc in the us,a departmental store for high flyers,in year 2000 at one time,atiku's mistress with  her maid spent over ten thousand dollars at one go for cloths,we got to know who she was because shop attendants were suprise to see a black  africa woman spending that kind of money at one go [cash],we asked who she was and she said she is the wife of the vice president of nigeria,she lives in a mansion in washington.The goverment is the problem ,because it is a norm for goverment official to get rich over night,so every child grows up thinking that it is normal to  get rich quick without accounting for it,the system creates a desperate situation, and a desperate person is ready to do any thing to survive,life is about living not just mere existance,a situation where you have to live with filth,mosquitos,blackout,heat and filthy water all because of a goverment that is not accountable,a normal human being have to have the basic things of life,without it,your brain can't develop,because you are psychologically defeated as a child,people grow up to think that life is full of problems without solutions because their role models are not solving it.So,before we start talking about 419,we have to address the key issue,ORIENTAION.

saintchux:

I was ashamed of myself as a Nigeria when I saw the damages these people as causing this country. I did not know that it is all these bad. I was at a ghana forum 2days ago when I come across a topic talking about scam in Nigeria.

When I followed the link provided in the forum I become more annoyed that ever. Imagine what damaged this has caused this country.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHphszkawoU&mode=related&search=

After watching this I have made up my mind to join force with anyone that is ready for us to fight this menace. It is really eating deep into this country.

While It is not going to be easy but if 5 people can form an anti 419 club, we can go to schools, cyber cafes, NYSC orientation camp to get members and from there we can move on. Am so unhappy that I wonder what I will face when I travel for my master by September.

Please let us rise and help make this country great

I watched that clip and the most annoying part is that the guy is not Nigerian,listen to his accent,secondly his last name Amoako is Ghanaian,he talked about having Nigerian partners but anyone watching this will come away thinking he was Nigerian.
That makes me sick.

All these Africans should stop pretending to be Nigerians especially while committing crime,it is not funny.

Well, I went to the link recommended by one of the users and despite the fact we all compain, it's good to see that some people are already thinking positively. I must be honest in saying that the 419 world is rather enticing when all you see around you is constant hardship and lack.
Unfortunately on the lower to middle level, the majority of people who are engaged in this are people who have either just graduated from secondary schools and trying to get into the university, or those who are presently in the university on their way out.
Psychologically, the main reason for getting into 419 is to be among the minority of people who are living the flamboyant lifestyle here in Nigeria or those that we see on TV. The economy has made it worse by provididng minimal ways of keeping these individuals busy.
I always believe that to solve a problem, there is the need to get to the root of it, if not you keep cutting off branches while the plant still survives. The root of this 419 situation is from the government itself. The government and leaders are filled with corruption and if they are getting away with it, then they have no right to tell me not to do same.
I know we all go on about the government, but the people themselves need to do something about it. Cafe owners should be more vigilant about what their access is used for, providing supervisors and secutrity personnel who would politely ask these people to leave the cafes, instead of wanting to make higher profits. If the cafes are probably better monitored and these people are ejected from every cafe they visit for engaging in unscrupulous activities, then I guess they would look for other means and while they do so, then the country can slowly clean up the mess they have created.
In all of this, an alternative for engaging these individuals should be thought of, either some sort of re-orientation or education, the learning of a trade, seminars on what other options they have and so on. If alternative measures are not put in place, then trying to stop them would be just a waste of time because they would become an even greater nuisance than if they had been left alone.

@saintchux,

While I agree with you that it is their greed that lead them to be defrauded, but it is causing more damage to us than them.

what is your press doing?

what is your people doing?

You should throw it back at their faces; the greey country and their citizens

You should be painting them black for encouraging 419 by responding cos of their greed

You should be asking the govt of those that get duped be deliver to Nigeria for imprisonment

But what do you get; Nigeria sit and hope somebody else will make its image better!! We are pack of jokers

I think the best solution is to setup a panel,this time arround not by the Government, but we are going to work in alliance with the government.We will be recognised by the government and all we have to do is to fish this 419ers out and hand them over to the Government.
Though we are going to need funds but any body can organise a meeting and we will all agree on calling upon the government to assist us.
And this panel shall characterise internet gurus,students,business men and women,and anybody that can give us vital information.

I think the best solution is to setup a panel,this time arround not by the Government, but we are going to work in alliance with the government.We will be recognised by the government and all we have to do is to fish this 419ers out and hand them over to the Government.
Though we are going to need funds but any body can organise a meeting and we will all agree on calling upon the government to assist us.
And this panel shall characterise internet gurus,students,business men and women,and anybody that can give us vital information.

God punish all the people wey dey damamge 9ja and give 9ja bad image

MP007, very good suggesting. I really do feel sorry for the good Nigerians, their chances of exploring other parts of the world may be hindered because of someone else wrong doings. I don't know how many Visa's the U.S. will grant, especially with the rate of 419 orginating out of Nigeria.

Join www.419eater.com and help waste scammers time. They already know it is not a profitable business but are still in it to see if some other magas will fall for it. Sadly magas are getting wiser by the day and are paying back in full force.

www.419eater.com is all about helping to stop scammers/419ers.

i think d best and impossible way is to stop d internet of a thing

aloibd:

i think d best and impossible way is to stop d internet of a thing

419 started b4 internet, and will continue after it. internet just helped them expand their territory cheaply

maybe if the government provided jobs for these unemployed who have no other choice than to scam, we wouldn't be having this!!

Would the Chinese model of totally policing the internet thwart 419ers?

Without 419 armed robbery would have been terrible in nigeria,a hungry man is an angry man,you can't beat it. If you keep destroying the nation by corruption and mismanagement,all you breed is chaos,it's a natural human reaction,personally bringing in hard currency into the country is far much better than taking it out like the politicians and all the multinational companies like BP,SHELL,TOTAL,etc does, they are the dragons sulking africa dry just because we are too blind to see,Financial world is very complex and draconian,so you got to make your own rules the best way it suits you,good and bad is relative depending on how you see it,the only problem is that they dupe some poor black people as well,that  i hate,any other thing is just a game of survival.

@Kellorah,

They can think of something better and create jobs, if the govt does that for them, they'll take scamming to another level, with bribery and extreme sexual assaults.

It boils down to conscience you know.

not everyone has talent u knw