I run an IT Consult firm with two cyber-cafes. Well, it's based in Festac and I'm really having a hectic time with the Festac police, with their consistent raids and demands for protection money.

Yes quite right Festac is the 419 haven, but with their constant harassment the normal browsers are scared of coming into the cafes. We the cafe operators are harassed. If the '419' guys they are apprehending are actually prosecuted their actions are laudable, but rather they arrest them just to collect money from them.

I had a case with a customer who was into '419' for excessive spamming since my ISP had mailed me his email account details, and do you know the guy had the guts to call the police because he settles them regularly and they actually arrested me for trying to throw the guy out of the cafe. How pathetic can things be. We cafe operators really need help in Festac.

What do you think can be done to arrest this menace? A corrupt police force is a really dangerous threat in any society. For them to actually collect bribes from scammers and protect them? Scary!

bani please get me the name or any thing you can get on this scrupolus police officers,and I promise you they will be dealth with. send all this info to my inbox. we must take action.

well i could give u a list of names, though some could be alias. there are about 5 squads which go to cafes. there a squad with a leader called inspector ekeh, theres another with a guy named badmus, theres another squad with a guy named 'kogi/pastor'. The list is endless. ive been to the area commander on an occasion to report and he said he doesnt order such activities then who does?
ive refused to settle any of the squads which i 'hear' some cafes do and right now my cafes are called 'police station' by most customers. i hope my brief could help someone out in helping us.

you will have to report this case to EFCC operatives in Lagos so that they can help you out. Alternatively you can match fire for fire by <editor:snip>

well presently efcc is in festac, they have been making some raids . but still yet the activities of the policemen continue. right now a '419' they picked up is back her and boasting about it. the effc has been in festac for a week we have notheard about any policeman being picked up for corruption, neither have they stopped their activities. what does that tell you.

@bani; efcc is not after 20 naira collectors. Thats will be a big waste of effort.

BANI you can send some info to this email, and try as much as possible to get a little more unique identifier info, like badge number and other useful info. fpro@nigeriapolice.org

Bibi:

@bani; efcc is not after 20 naira collectors. Thats will be a big waste of effort.

well EFCC is Economic and Financial Crimes Commision Remember?
so whether itz 20 naira or whateva itz a financial crime
and it has to do with the police
whew what a great Country

Well i owned and run a cybercafe and i thank God i don't get all these stupid raids from these so called policemen, it's not that i settle them o.

Bani you need to let them know that they should stop the incessant raid since am sure they don't have any concrete proof/evidence of cyber fraud in and from your premises. They must show you any evidence like your IP address and all other technical stuffs before they can be coming to harrass your custormers. They don't have any right to harass anyone based on percieved invlovement in cyber scams.

The EFCC and the Nigerian Police don't have what it takes to police the Internet it's well beyond their league. The earlier you make them realise this the better. Those operators that are offering them bribes are the one that are causing the major problems, it lend credence to their(police) assumptions about cyber frauds in their cybercafes.

Am still waiting for the day they will come to my office though, I go show them pepper(not money o).

Bani...dont you cafe operators in festac hav a union or sum'n

U should resist this police since u arent guilty of any crime. Let them arrest you if they have any warrant. Better still take a proactive measure. Get ur folks (cafe operators) that are disturbed and to the efcc office...not police cos dem don rotten for the head..all the same.

on the issue of getting their tag numbers, they dont wear unifornms, the just wear their police colored jackets so you dont get to identify them. the issue of a union has been raised on several occassions, but some big spending cafes see it as nothing to settle this police men right from the area command so if u whos running on a tight budget tries to bring up such an issue, they are not willing to give you an ear. its like as if its a cankerworm which has eaten into the police in festac. of recent a fresh batch of officers where brought in to the command and it didnt take them any time to get into the swing of it. some cafe operators with clout say they have reported the issuem, so for it to continue unabated with some higher authorities aware of it, was does that tell you....

i suggest you go through one of those "big" cyber cafes and meet the very top police officers to "settle" your differences amicably. You better create an expenditure head titled "police"

I think u will really love to read this. These boys won't kill us. They have given us bad names. They are everywhere, not only in Festac.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/latimests/20051020/ts_latimes/iwilleatyourdollars

I can't see why bani, as owner of the cafe, can't run any program he wants on any computer in his cafe, at any time he chooses.

He could, for example, run a program that slows a PC to a crawl on command. When a scammer logs in to that PC, bani kicks the slow-down program into life. When the 419er logs out, bani stops the slow-down program. It wouldn't be long before the 419ers gave up on his cafe.

I can't see why bani, as owner of the cafe, can't run any program he wants on any computer in his cafe, at any time he chooses.

He could, for example, run a program that slows a PC to a crawl on command. When a scammer logs in to that PC, bani kicks the slow-down program into life. When the 419er logs out, bani stops the slow-down program. It wouldn't be long before the 419ers gave up on his cafe.

I my cafe people can't login to www.ebay.com and some other site because i have disables it.  I have over 5000 sites lockeddown.

www.ebay.com used an "isapi.dll" to process their login script what i did was to disable the downloading of any .dll files from the main firewall. People can get to www.ebay.com homepage but the moment they try to login they will hit a snag.

This way they don't come around my place to use www.ebay.com.

There are so many things you can do to protect your facilities, but what pained me most is that after going through all these length to protect the entire netcitizen population from being exploited, one stupid officer that does not know what an e-mail is will walk up to your premise with AKs and MK 16s shouting and arresting people when Alaye-Mu-Siga walks the streets of Yenagoa a freeman.

joftech i feel you on that one. when putting snags on some site s like ebay, u have to realise some people also come online to do legitimate businesses. like i resell and shop on ebay via a friends account.

joftech i feel you on that one. when putting snags on some site s like ebay, u have to realise some people also come online to do legitimate businesses. like i resell and shop on ebay via a friends account.

Let's be factual 90% of hits on ebay from cybercafes are with intents to fraud. If someone tell me that they want to use ebay and other restricted sites if they can prove that they want to do legitimate stuffs there they get access right away.

i want to collaborate what bani wrote about the festac police.

i also run a small cybercafe in festac but right now am being hounded out of business by this police.
they come to you for outright demand of protection money which if u dont play ball they constantly harass yr customers. not all of us are in this business for 419. there are still young,hardworking nigerians who wish to earn their living legitimately.
they are about 5 squads from the zone command,they wear mufti to prevent identification. some are led by one guy called badmus, another ekeh and one has a yoruba man with tribal marks.

the cafes who are into this 419 are well known in festac they have all the money to settle this police and the police hardly goes there. and even those (419ners) arrested are promptly released after settlement in less than 30min
you see them back whereas the innocent browser is harassed and embarrassed. this group of pple fearing for their lifes are driven away. while the 419 with police protection brag and walk in confidence about
in fact in the evnings u see most of them in drinking joints with this policemen.

This country is more or less bleeped UP. Why will someone have to pay police illegal "protection money"? When they collect it is shiows they are giving people the go ahead to commit cybercrimes.

Anyway am still saying it they can't mess with me. I have never had any such incident in my place, and by God's grace it will never happen.

well atleast someone feels or should i say felt my pain. a fellow cafe owner had to relocate last week to ladipo cos he could not stand the stress in festac...if not for my infrastructure on ground i would follow suit. i've met cafe owners outside festac and they dont go through such.

well at least someone feels or should i say felt my pain. a fellow cafe owner had to relocate last week to ladipo because he could not stand the stress in festac...if not for my infrastructure on ground i would follow suit. i've met cafe owners outside festac and they don't go through such.

Really, I am seriously thinking of that myself because the stress is too much coupled with the power problem in Festac. They make this business so scary.

Hi Joftech.
I like ur said of the pot-reply (i mean ur www.ebay.com.
Do u know that block those site doesn't stop them from login in to it,
If u dont believe this, Mail me back and see what i have in to say.
These guys are just trying tp destroy the great name Nigeria (The Giant of Africa)
Well, Na wa OOOOOOOOOOOO.

well am olaitan and my friend runs a cybercafe of which i am the manager to the cafe.the police problem is becoming a menace in cybercafe today and his giving the innocent cafe operators and browser a heavy headache.the most embarrasing thing is that most of this so called police are illiterate as far as the internet is corcern and they just demand for stupid sum.pls i urge the IG and the entire nigeria police force that knows for what it takes to become a police man to help us do something to these cos it's already a problem.

Well this is not something new in todays world, Bani, your cyber has a cyber control system, whenever you think someone aint so straight just shut down the PC from the counter. I also advice you to invest in Portable Pcs With racks. At the end of the day, bundle them up and take them home.

This is really a serious matter o!

this is really serious ooooooo

bani:

I run an IT Consult firm with two cyber-cafes. Well, it's based in Festac and I'm really having a hectic time with the Festac police, with their consistent raids and demands for protection money.

Yes quite right Festac is the 419 haven, but with their constant harassment the normal browsers are scared of coming into the cafes. We the cafe operators are harassed. If the '419' guys they are apprehending are actually prosecuted their actions are laudable, but rather they arrest them just to [size=13pt]collect money[/size] from them.

I had a case with a customer who was into '419' for excessive spamming since my ISP had mailed me his email account details, and do you know the guy had the guts to call the police because he settles them regularly and they actually arrested me for trying to throw the guy out of the cafe. How pathetic can things be. We cafe operators really need help in Festac.

Protection from what/who?

Do you also know that the police also engage in cyber fraud? They threat with uniforms and subject their victim to explain how he operate and from there they become friend and they learn the trade. Therefore what can we do about the embarrasment? Reporting them don't solve the issue bacuse they were sent by their superior officers in the office.

How can a law-abiding cybercafé operator survive in corruption-rife Nigeria?, The Problem of PHCN is understandable but the issue of Police Harassing Law abiding Citizens doing about their legitimate Biz in an Unfavorable Biz environment will be called What? I strongly solicit anyone that can put me through a legal stand on this issue.

Make sure you install a security camera at your cafe that records everything that goes on, just in-case something goes wrong.

you can shop for cheap cameras at http://www.discountNG.com There are over 45,000 products on the site.

You can also sign up as a reseller at almost 10% discount.