A lot of people explore the various
opportunities that are available in Lagos
which usually cuts across getting a job or
engaging in a business. Some people however
have perfected the art of duping and
scamming people in the city. The more people
are trying to avoid getting caught in the web
of scammers, the more intelligent they get.
The scam, popularly called 419 which is a
section of the Nigerian constitution that deals
with fraud is very rampant in Lagos and you
need to be smart not to fall for them.

Here are 10 Lagos 419 tricks you must be
wary of.

1. Visa Lottery

The desire to travel out of Nigeria in search of
greener pasture is a weakness which
fraudsters prey on. Visa lottery is one of the
opportunities available to travel to America
and Europe. These fraudsters open fake
websites or adverts for Visa openings asking
people to apply and pay a token. The string of
payment begins when they inform you that you
are close to securing a visa to the country of
your choice. If you are not careful, you might
end up paying more money than you would
have if you were following the due process to
secure a visa. At the end, the 419ers don’t
even have any visa to provide.

2. Money Doubling

This trick involves being asked to provide any
amount of money with the promise that the
money would be doubled. The elaborate drama
involves the supposed money doubler
‘successfully’ doubling the money provided by
random persons. The idea is to get you
interested especially if you are the greedy type.
If you put in a little money and you get double
the amount, you are likely to try with a bigger
sum which is when you will be scammed.

3. Prophet Of Doom

This scheme is meant to prey on the weakness
of those who subscribe to religion. These
fraudsters are aware that most people in
Lagos believe what they are told by religious
leaders and thus pretend to be one. The fake
prophet approaches and tells you he can see
through some imaginary means that you have
a spiritual problem and randomly mentions one
or two problems you might be going through.
He is likely to tell you that your great
grandmother is responsible for your woes and
he alone has to key to unlocking the bondage.
If you believe him, you are likely to spiral down
a tunnel of lies.

4. Small Investment; Big Reward

Investments, especially in Lagos is expected to
yield big financial rewards but you should be
wary of the ones were little is known about the
‘business’ except that you are only asked to
provide some money and wait for your money
to grow. The scammer might give you list of
names and people ready to testify that the
business is the only way you can make it big
in Lagos.. as soon as you are in, you are likely
to be in the scheme until you have sold all
your things and borrowed more before you are
left alone. By then, it is already too late to do
anything as the scammer will disappear to the
underground.

5. Familiar Face

This form of scam is activated and completed
in less than a minute so you need to be careful
and smart. If someone suddenly grabs you in a
friendly bear hug and says it has been a long
time you last saw each other while you are
struggling to see the person’s face, then you
have been hooked. It is likely the person will
release you from the grip, look at your face
and apologise that you look very familiar and
makes a comment that people are created in
twos. As soon as the person goes, he is sure
to have disappeared with your mobile phone,
wallet and other valuables you have. How this
is done remains a mystery but as soon as
someone hold you in a deadlock, better push
away and apologise later if the person is
someone you actually know. It is better than
being squeezed dry.

6. Bag Of Money

This trick is a very elaborate one meant to pull
the victim in until there is no way out. The
scammer who is a member of a larger group
pretends to have stumbled upon a bad of
foreign currency but the money is supposedly
under the siege of a spiritual spell. The plan is
to entice you with the large sum of money.
You are expected to follow the group to a spell
where the spell can be broken and the money
will be safe for spending. As soon as you
follow the group, you are definitely going to
lose your money in a bid to pay for the spell to
be broken.

7. Winning Number

With the different promotions being done by
companies to reward their customers,
scammers are keying into this scheme to
defraud people in Lagos. Text messages are
sent to random numbers that they are the
lucky winners of large amounts of money in
the on-going promo of a company. A phone
number is provided for you to call in order to
claim your money. That is where the
scamming begins as you are asked to pay
some amount of money for the money to be
transferred to you.

8. Foreign Relative

This scam also involves mobile communication
but unlike the Winning Number” which begins
with a text message, this scam is initiated with
a phone call from a person who claims to be a
distant relative and is living in one foreign
country. The scammer then milks you a story
about his decision to send you some goods
and that you need to send some money to an
account before the goods can be cleared. As
soon as you fail to detect the scam, you are
definitely going to pay a lot for your mistake.

9. Job

With a lot of people looking for jobs in Lagos,
this scam is not easy to detect. Lagosians
lose their guards when there is the offer of a
job and might not take the time to find out
how credible the job is. This scam involve job
seekers who were selected usually without
applying for that job being asked to submit
their Cv and some processing fee. The
processing fee is not likely to end until the job
seeker realises that he has been putting water
into a basket.

10. Accident

This scam plays on Lagosians’ emotion which
is usually uncontrollable when they get the
news of an accident. In this case, the scammer
calls to inform you that a member of your
family is involved in an accident and is in
critical condition. Your phone number was
found on the victim’s phone and you are
expected to send some money so the person
can receive adequate treatment. It is
reasonable to call the person’s number first or
someone who might have more reliable
information before proceeding. If not, you can
realise too late that you have fallen for a 419
scheme

The energy and time these fraudsters channel to perfect their fraudulent mischiefs; if they channel it into inventing some meaningful things; Nigeria would be a better place...












But no they believe crime pays