I trust Nigerians to always put up this holier than thou crap as attitude. Ranting and wailing about how much 'crime' this LEGEND of a guy committed; but if you check their fathers' small wealth very well, a substantial part came from cutting corners and deals here and there, kickbacks, inflated contracts, profiteering, criminal nepotism, and so on - regardless of whether they worked in a government agency/ministry, or in a bank, construction firm, private business, wherever. And now the offsprings of these hypocrites have gone to school (probably abroad) with their parents' illegally earned wealth and now have big mouths to condemn others' so-called 'crimes' here on NL and elsewhere. SMH.

I have a hard time being a hypocrite in such matters. Show me a so-called successful man or wealthy man in this country of God forsaken hypocrites and I'll show you a terribly corrupt fool whose exploits haven't yet been uncovered, and who as such deems himself to have earned(?) his money through 'dint of hard work'. I bet the likes of Erastus Akingbola and Cecelia Ibru and their brainless, spoilt, Ivy-league educated children would have been the first to denounce Tobechi and other 'fraudsters' as 'never do well' criminals that give Nigerians a bad name. Imagine the konkonbility (apologies to Chiwetalu Agu).

In any case I have never really considered 'yahoo yahoo' and scams like Tobechi's to be egregiously bad; so long as no blood is spilled and no physical tortue is visited upon anyone, I cudn't be bordered. I remember how violent cultism reduced drastically in my school and many schools in naija at the peak of 'yahoo-ism' as the bad boys learnt to channel their raw energies towards making money online and doing 'big boys' in school rather than look for who to kill, maim, despoil, and traumatize. I remember being grateful for that kind of 'positive' effect the 'yahoo yahoo' craze brought about.

Let us take care of the countless murderers, ritualists, occultists, embezzlers, and other such characters that dot our socio-political and economic landscape before bordering our heads with small 'yahoo yahoo' boys who prefer to use their brains (rightly or wrongly) than resort to armed robbery which is infinitely worse for the rest of society. Any oyinbo that is FOOLISH enough to fall for scammers fantastic antics should privately lick his wounds, rue his gullibility, and hope the authorities nab the culprit and recover his money, rather than raise hell about how scammers are the worst category of evil people in the world. In Tobechi's case, it was the banks that were FOOLISH enough to allow loop-holes which he and his crew impressively exploited, and that's why the banks have to reimburse the 'victims' to the last penny.

I'll be the last to condemn Tobechi, heck, I commend his (admittedly infamous) ingenuity! If the violent blood-gangs of the mafia and drug-mobs have been serially idolized in popular culture and movies time and time again, across the world, why would any fool single out Tobechi and his 'innocuous' felonies for hypocritical excoriation of the highest order? Even the Americans themselves that were scammed and the FBI that busted his crew are awed by his ingenuity. But trust Nigerians to be full of hypocritical fury at the drop of a hat.

I would never ever put scammers like Tobechi and the other yahoo boys in the same league as murderers, armed robbers, ritualists, violent criminals and the likes. You better be careful what you wish for; wait until you endure the trauma of being visited by armed robbers: your sister (or wife) violated by 4 gang members in your presence, your dad shot dead, and your two legs shattered with bullets (God forbids!) before you know that it is not the same thing as stupidly falling for one scammer's fantastic schemes. Violent crimes are the ultimate crimes, and I'll happily choose to experience non-violent crimes rather than violent ones if either were inevitable. As an aside, if the US government was given the option of immediately releasing Bernard Madoff from jail (despite his $50b ponzi scheme) in exchange for capturing Bin Laden, don't you think it'll be a no-brainer?

Life is one big battle of wits, everyone is trying to outsmart the other in one way or another everyday; scammers only take this template a notch higher. Anyone that has the misfortune (whether through his own stupidity and gullible greed or through systemic loop-holes like the Tobechi 'victims') should just hope the law catches up with the culprit(s), rather than wishing to have been stabbed in the chest and clubbed to death instead (people should really be careful what they wish for). Of course every crime or misdemeanour has its penalty, and anyone caught commiting any crime should face the due penalty. But that does not mean that one shouldn't recognize the 'opportunity cost' as it were between non-violent scams on one hand, and violent crimes that leave behind imprimaturs of sorrow, tears, blood and death.

pipz:

[color=#990000]I ain't snitching on anybody here O!!! but i swear i must have seen this boy before, 2 years ago i was at the palms and 4 boys just rode in with a Black phantom everybody at the palms where like . i swear it must have been him i guess, but big ups to him, the guy dey get him HUSTLE on, I'm sure everybody here would have love to be, 'TOBE'



Nothing do you, ko ni re' ooo!!![/color]

Don Diara:

Thumbs up for TOBE, Americans feels like they are the best and no one can break them, we need more people like TOBE. We need to show them that we are better than them. Remember the slave trade days, those bastards showed NO mercy on our fathers we need to avenge that. One love.

SEFAGO:

I dont still understand why eevryone is impressed. Do you know how porous the american banking system is? His scamming will not even work in naija. Its very easy to transfer money from someones bank account to your account without the person being notified in the US.

his "ingenuity" is as a result of a badly set up system.

SEFAGO:

I dont still understand why eevryone is impressed. Do you know how porous the american banking system is? His scamming will not even work in naija. Its very easy to transfer money from someones bank account to your account without the person being notified in the US.

his "ingenuity" is as a result of a badly set up system.

EzeUche_:

You have been screaming the thing all through this thread. Do I sense jealousy? I mean are you jealous of a scammer? The man is intelligent. Now get over it.

fstranger1:

Very stupidd assertion

Why would he be jealous

what he  did is simply not that impressive. Any idle person can pull it off. Remember, he used to work in a bank and had help throughout

There is nothing impressive about what he did.

"They said they cashed them because I was a good customer. They didn't hold the checks, they didn't verify the funds, they took the fact that I was a good customer. If I'm a good customer, then you should be looking out for my best interest," Kindall said.

And he still remains free after taking so much money.

SEFAGO:

Once you appear on the FBI radar you are gone.

olabukola:

Osama nko?

It takes gots and smartness to pull what that guy did. A dullard can't do yahoo yahoo talkless of HOLOC. If you had read the original post you will notice how FBI discribed him, are you guys telling me that FBI exagerated his prowess? Even at the point of arrest he "melted into the night". Conned the telecom oparetor to give out info about him and the FBI agent that is on his phone. This the kinda stuff you see in Hollywood Movies. Diff voice(Young,Middle aged and Old). Just like Frank Jr(Pilot, Doctor, etc). When caught he will serve but he will be useful to FB after hiz sentence.

Its in their blood anyway.

olabukola:

^^^^ You still don't know what HELOC is?

Conned the telecom oparetor to give out info about him and the FBI agent that is on his phone. This the kinda stuff you see in Hollywood Movies. Diff voice(Young,Middle aged and Old). Just like Frank Jr(Pilot, Doctor, etc). When caught he will serve but he will be useful to FB after hiz sentence.