Are We Nigerians All Fraudsters?

It is an open secret that Nigerians are enlightened, educated and gifted. We have contributed in no small measure to the development of Africa and the World at large in various disciplines.

Yet 419 is a popular stigma with Nigerians throughout the world.

Please read this link: http://www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=41500&printer_friendly=1

Why are we so Fraudulent?

nigerians, come and answer this question

Which kind question be dat??arent you a nigerian??Cant you see the level of poverty, Infact akolawole why are you claiming ignorance of our problematic society

@Rikkyjen

You dissapoint me with your comment.

1) I am a Nigerian, proud to be a Nigerian anyday.

2) "level of poverty", I beg give me another excuse!

3) You live in Yankee, Why are we fraudulent there as well?

It has nothing to do with Nigerians. Some Human beings are fraudulent in nature.

Nigerians are not really fraudulent. Its just that we know too much and we are only channeling the knowledge negatively.

The answer to the question is simple. They are simply following their leaders.

I am ashamed to be a Nigerian. But then, I have to live with it.

Shock reaction i was shocked by your reaction !! how can you be ashamed to be a Nigerian.
I think Nigerians are fraudulent because of the need to survive in a country that does every thing to make sure you don't.
The situation has killed our conscience, when you see our leaders and wealthy ones living in affluence cuz of stolen oil money and fraudulent contracts, it strengthens the resolve to make it at all cost. So Nigerians result to tricky means. It's sad

If we turn our innovation into enterprise we will be agreat nation.

You can only dream for this country to become better. Let's face reality. With the way things are currently, how long do you think it'll take before things change for the better?

If you think it's only Nigerians involved in fraudulent activities then you are sadly mistaken, it's the way of the world.

Cos suffer suffer de for Naija.

do u mean like fake stuff? one day i bought this 50cent p.i.m.p on hold up in osodi and when i played it i found it was ife bi eji owuro , not the record but it was sang with raw mouth no drums or instrument, seconds later the person was like oloriire to raa ko ba mi complete e. it was funny at first but later it's like where are we going in naija.

survival of the fittest some people use their information as a means of survival, someone that receives his/her monthly salary on time can feed the family,pay school fees and still have enough in case of emergency would really see the need for doin this shizzle
But some people are just born or should i say raised to be greedy, oppressive, obstentious! they need to show off so inrespective of what they earn they still want more!!

so sad but true


ps: note i used "some"

_{why is it that most nigeria newspaper copy and paste news from foreign papers, they can atleast always re-write it!!!!!}

@kolawole, Nigerians are fraudulent because IT IS IN THE BLOOD.

@Rhodalyn, its like you are not a Nigerian, are you. You may be a nigerian physically, but not a true-nigerian. Thats a higher order. I know a lot of Nigerians in Nigeria, who are actually foreigners.

@shockreaction, dont be ashamed of being a nigerian. even if you are ashamed, it shows on your face. The problem with nigeria is not the leaders, its the people. Nigeria is not the poorest country in the world, but here, things are not just working.

@nightrider, yes, we have a lot of wealthy ppl in nigeria, but in reality their wealth is only in our local currency and maybe some foreign currency(a little), as compared to dollar-dons in the western world. yet, the rich and the poor their are not as currupt as we are, neither do they resolve to violence, like we do.

@disney, yes its true, its all suffer suffer here. Its the way we want it and nothing else.

@teju, its not just fake stuff, its fake ppl, thats the problem,,,, and we are ruled by fake leaders, and the leader is a normal fake person like the rest of us all - nigerians.

exactly kimba.exactly

@Topic

We as Nigerians are too greedy, and like shortcuts to life. I think Nigerians as a whole, has too many tribes competing for far reaching goals. And we try to out do each other for the wrong reasons. Even the Okada man,mechanic,driver,meguard,electrician all want to make money quick. It is a Dog eat dog world, and that mentality has corrupted a whole generation! We glorify wealth instead of hard work. That is why Guymen are hailed, and Lecturers are looked down on.

Igbos famous for general fraud and illegal drugs.
Yorubas famous for bad checks,credit cards, accounts,
Benin famous for prostitution and fake emails.
Hausa just steal from within the federal government coffers.

God Help Us!!!!

Thank God Kokscity is an American Citizen!

i think its just a survival of the fittest thing also, not only nigerians are frauding, it happens everywhere, like it or not. but anyways, i'm proud of my country no matter what and just pray that God will intervene. Amen.

Kokscity:

Thank God Kokscity is an American Citizen!

So what!
You may be holding an American passport but the REAL Americans know themselves

LoverBwoy:

survival of the fittest some people use their information as a means of survival, someone that receives his/her monthly salary on time can feed the family,pay school fees and still have enough in case of emergency would really see the need for doin this shizzle

@Loverbouy
I understand you live in UK, if we say people in Naija does that because of our bad economy , WHY DO THOSE THAT LIVE IN WESTERN WORLD DO THAT AS WELL?

disney:

Cos suffer suffer de for Nigeria.

I grew up to know things are difficult so,

@Akolawale

I would rather be a fake American, than a fraudulent/upstanding/holy Nigerian. FYI if you hold a Passport/Naturalization certificate or Birth certificate make you a real citizen of that country. Not Half,Not Fake,Not circumstantial, just a citizen. I taught u knew that?

Kokscity giving civic lessons for free. A kind gesture from a nice boy!!!!!

@Kokscity

oh boy, ur last post na 419. u sure say u sef no get hand. dat ur american citizenship sef, how genuine is it? if na visa lottery, did u provyd dem wit real details? dz days, 1 no dey 2 sure.

but den, d situation is bad. check out sum of d crisis goin down in d country

OBJ says he's willing to die in d interest of nigeria cos he wants 2 coomplete his work 4 d nation. which leader in any country, organisation or wateva does it all? tryin 2 xtend his stay in office beyond 2007 to continue lootin, leavin us in our daily state of sufferin n smilin. don't u c dat any governor or politician dat is not on his syd gets it hot 4rm EFCC. we all kno BABA is not innocent of fraudulent acts, so y hasn't d body he set up 2 fight fraud looked in2 his case?

d IJAW boys r in d delta creeks holdin sum foreigners hostage cos of dis oil been manipulated in their land. maybe if they were employed, they wlda had beta plans 4 their lives. instead of BABA 2 luk in2 d issue, he jus kept his face 1 syd. now, he's thinkin of bringin in chinese ppl 4 d safe-guardin of d oil since US hav neglected his call.

d EVIL GENIUS (my name sake) has declared himself d man 4 2007. so, it keeps goin deeper n deeper.

d malpractices of ppl in dis country 2day r already as a result of d crime committed by d "good" ppl back in d days. + dis wyt ppl r only bein paid back 4 d slavery dey put our forefather thru in d past (wat sum ppl feel).

1 more thing, eva checked d softwares wyt ppl created 2 spam d world n nigerians decided 2 use it 2 scam dem back. if we mus dig 4rm d crates, den we wld agree dat wat goes around cums back around.




*IBB- 2007*

@ Kimba

the difference between the wealthy in the western world and the wealthy in Nigeria is a Hardwork and innovation.
In the U.S nobody questions the wealth of men like bill gates, donald trump, oprah winfrey, paul allen, steve balmer,  because we all saw where it came from. Pure innovation no Governemnt contracts and fronting for Leaders involved. Thats the difference.

The wealth of these great Americans inspires younger American citizens to work hard and be innovative and they too can make it.(The google boys) In Nigeria the stolen wealth of our leaders inspires younger ones to be crafty and look for a way into government so they can make money. Our banks until recently have been to weak to give meaninful start up loans to the innovative people we have . So where do they get the capital from. Thats the major problem.

Name 7 extremely wealthy Nigerians who don't have ties to the government. Its sad. And also Kimba if you think Nigerians are not wealthy in dollars think again. I used to have a world bank report of the 50 richest men in Nigeria, who have ties to the government , the lowest person on that list had $350 million in a swiss bank account. The highest Ibrahim Babangida Had $9billion in one of his three major foriegn accounts. So kimba think again.

for nigeria

IBB shld b d richest man in d world. 50 generations afta him can neva kno lack. dat man has more money dan many african nations put 2geda.

r they now google boys? thot d popular name 4 dem was yahoo-yahoo?

i meant google boys in terms of the boys who founded the google website. Not in terms of Yahoo yahoo nigerian 419 millionaires

oh. i get u now. sori bout d mistake!

no probs

@IBB
I never do anyone 419 for my life B4. Na real Citizenship i get. The process took nearly Six and a half years. I did it all by the books no Mago, Mago.

@Nightrider

U are exactly right my brother.Nigerians value shortcuts and stolen money. We will never change, except we start valuing hardwork and innovation and productivity. Well said none the less.

yes o, this post is just getting tasty,

@nightrider
i would rather put a "plus" sign between the first and third paragraphs of your last post, im talking clean money, man, clean money, and thats what you mentioned in your first paragraph

the difference between the wealthy in the western world and the wealthy in Nigeria is a Hardwork and innovation.
In the U.S nobody questions the wealth of men like bill gates, donald trump, oprah winfrey, paul allen, steve balmer,  because we all saw where it came from. Pure innovation no Governemnt contracts and fronting for Leaders involved. Thats the difference.

that is exactly the problem, A lot, let me even say majority of the RICH people in this country can't boast of clean money. Its either they stole it from the govt or from another person who they killed and had to make human sacrifices for, its all in our movies, right?

Name 7 extremely wealthy Nigerians who don't have ties to the government.

all the ones i know have ties to the govt, in the western world, its not the case,

And also Kimba if you think Nigerians are not wealthy in dollars think again.

 
I really don't consider someone rich if his source of wealth is not genuine,

and the reason why all these our peeps keep their money in swiss accounts is because its not genuine, they fear to get caught, Bill Gates pumps his money into microsoft, not into some swiss account,

Who is the real Mugu? Revenge is sweet , http://www.419eater.com/html/trophy_room.htm


• There is a culture in Nigeria that esteems those who can make money without working.

In the 18th century, European traders sat in hulks and trading posts at the mouths of the Oil Rivers, Badagry and other sites and were well used to the ridiculous amounts demanded by Nigerian traders for Palm Oil, Ivory and Slaves. Serious negotiation was involved and people like John Holt are on record complaining about the difficulty of dealing with the locals

I grew up in Nigeria long before oil was discovered in the Niger Delta. The culture of Southern Nigeria has always admired those who can make money without working and I have scam letters going back to the 1950's.

Us Old Coasters became increasingly irritated with the outrageous prices demanded by traders for Nigerian Craft work as the tourist business increased and naive tourists (usually Americans) paid the initial prices asked which could be up to 20 times the going price elsewhere. The somewhat "jack the lad" culture of southern Nigeria combined with the stupidity of foreigners showed how easy it was to make money from the white mugus and intelligent scammers soon developed the 419 scams, initially via fax and then via the internet.

Children raised in this culture soon learn that scamming is acceptable – especially if you are successful.

The attitude of the family is largely dependent on the degree of success their chum has with scamming, if the lads been on it for 3 yrs and only has a fairly used car to show, he's a failure and no-good, but if he's built a couple of houses and cruises around in an X5, all hail the king! They even give him a chieftaincy title in his hometown!!!

• Using internet cafes costs money. Those poor starving Nigerians who can’t afford to feed their family also can’t afford to use internet cafes.

• It is the better educated Nigerians who are able to speak some English. While we may laugh at the way they mangle it (how well can you write in another language?) they wouldn’t be able to speak it at all if they weren’t somewhat better off than many of the rest of their countrymen.

• Scams do not target Westerners. They target anyone with money. In this thread one of the 419eater moderators, Lew_Skannen replies to this claim with a list of some of the victims that he has personally spoken to:
1. Thai women, catering assistant in Bangkok - lost about £20,000 of money borrowed from family and employer. When she told the scammer she had no money he told her to go borrow some.
2. Saudi Arab - $130K
3. Egyptian - sick wife - lost $10K
4. Egyptian - $7K
5. Black American woman - student - lost $2K
6. Black American woman - single mother - lost about $10K but was saved from losing another $20K by a timely phone call.
7. Korean guy - Lost $1000+
8. Mexican woman- reasonably wealthy family I think - lost $120K
9. Polynesian woman - $5K
10 - Colombian man - $500 only.

• Successful scammers make a lot of money out of it. If they were really doing this to right past wrongs then the money would be used to assist the poor. But this money doesn’t get distributed to the poor. It goes straight into their own pockets. The money that their victims have borrowed to fund this business deal and will spend years paying back goes on supporting a lifestyle that very few others in Nigeria can enjoy.

In the course of this business I have purchased several luxury cars and built many large houses which I rent out. Believe you me my friend, an American sucker is born every hour. Take you for instance if you had any money you would have lost it. The only thing keeping you safe is your poverty. You should thank God for that!


• Many countries are poor and many countries have come off second best from colonialism but Nigeria has a huge amount of valuable natural resources. There is more than enough to drag it out of poverty. However corruption is a colossal problem - Nigeria is rated as the second most corrupt country in the world (after Bangladesh) and that corruption is right through the whole of the society – from the top down. Nigeria will not be able to escape what some see as the legacy of colonialism until this problem is dealt with. As long as it is tolerated, or worse encouraged, by the majority of people then they will continue to struggle as a poor nation, stigmatized by a reputation for corruption and scamming.

It pains me to hear that poverty is a reason for fraud. This is because having visited both Sudan and Ethiopia, I can authoritatively say what we call poverty in Nigeria (which I have seen too) is actually luxury to others in these countries.

Fraud is derived from a mindset. A fraudulent mind will always resort to fraud. I have received and read so many 419 letters and I just laugh,cos if the time and resources spent concocting those stories was directed to some more ethical venture, it would have yielded a reasonable amount of money.

Its up to all of us on fora like this to stand up to fruad and redeem Nigeria's image.

One major reason for the fraudulent nature of some Nigerians is the nature of our society. In Nigeria today, nobody is ready to know how u got ur wealth, once u r wealthy, almost everyone gets to reckon with u.

Some ppl are also not ready to work hard. Many ppl want to make quick money, regardless of how wrong, , or even inhuman the means is. Some people's lives are at risk at the expense of the greed and laziness of others.