How do you feel about the EFCC's decision to ban night browsing in cyber-cafes throughout Nigeria?

I think it's a wrong decision because:
1) It's ineffective. Scammers can afford to pay for home access (4000 naira a month).
2) It's unjust. It is unfair and immoral to punish innocent people along with the guilty
3) It favors the rich and punishes the poor. Rich people don't use cyber-cafes.
4) It favors the large ISPs that sell home access. Why isn't night browsing at home banned?
5) It is bad for the economy of Nigeria. Many cybercafes will be forced to close, investments lost.
6) It is bad for the labor force. When cyber-cafes start closing up, more people will be jobless.

Actually, it doesn't even favor the rich. Rich people use Nigerian ISPs with limited bandwith, like Multilinks. If those who were formerly doing night browsing all start using home access, it will affect the speed at which rich people who don't use cyber-cafes can download files on the Internet, due to more competition for limited bandwidth.

So this is a regulation is bad for business, bad for employers, bad for EFCC because it won't work, and especially bad for people who cannot afford Internet access at home. The only people who will gain from this are the licensed ISPs that provide Internet access to home users. Are they the ones that pushed the EFCC to do this?

Read about it here: www.thisdayonline.com/nview.php?id=57920 Do you support this?

Seun, I believe you own a cyber café that is why you are bitter. 90% of those who stay out all night to perform the so-called NIGHT BROWSING are not doing it for educational purposes. It is mainly for pornography and 419!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To the extent now that a lot of secondary school boys are into Yahoo-Yahoo (small time 419) because they can walk into any cyber café and just perform their deeds undisturbed and unmonitored. All because they can pay a few Nairas for all night browsing. The genuine ones use public internet facilities in the day time not at night. Tell me, what would somebody, a student or worker, be doing all night in an internet room? Isn't the person going to work or school in the morning?

For your information, ISPs have started collating data of their customers. If you have a telephone line with internet connection, your ISP would ask for a copy of your drivers licence or you international passport. This will make private internet facility owners to be more responsible.

Cyber Cafés will not close down, though there will be a reduction in income. The genuine ones will continue to patronise them.

Seun:

How do you feel about the EFCC's decision to ban night browsing in cyber-cafes throughout Nigeria?

I think it's a wrong decision because:
1) It's ineffective. Scammers can afford to pay for home access (4000 naira a month).
2) It's unjust. It is unfair and immoral to punish innocent people along with the guilty
3) It favors the rich and punishes the poor. Rich people don't use cyber-cafes.
4) It favors the large ISPs that sell home access. Why isn't night browsing at home banned?
5) It is bad for the economy of Nigeria. Many cybercafes will be forced to close, investments lost.
6) It is bad for the labor force. When cyber-cafes start closing up, more people will be jobless.

to me, it is unfair, cos not everybody have the time to browse in the day. apart from that nigth browsing is less costly in terms of financial handicapoped most of us find ourselves.

419 can be (is) practised at any time of the day. The move by EFCC is not exhaustive to curb the menace.

Seun, I believe you own a cyber café that is why you are bitter.

It's because I spent two years doing day-and-night browsing in a cyber-cafe before I got Internet access at home. If I didn't spend all that time doing research, I won't know many things I know today.

90% of those who stay out all night to perform the so-called NIGHT BROWSING are not doing it for educational purposes. It is mainly for pornography and 419!

At least 80-90% of night browsers are legitimate. Probably more. Why harm them with such a law? Look, all that will happen is that many policemen will use it to make money from cybercafes that can't afford the law.

Tell me, what would somebody, a student or worker, be doing all night in an internet room?

Have you ever done night browsing? I have. So maybe you should listen to me (and others).

During the two years I was in and out of cyber-cafes, I saw people using night browsing for academic projects, search for educational opportunities, personal research, entertainment, genuine business, et cetera. If a cyber-cafe isn't friendly to scammers, they won't use it. The methods they use are so crude that they can be easily caught. Students love to use night browsing for their projects because it's cheaper. This law is robbery to them.

Isn't the person going to work or school in the morning?

A lot of people who do night browsing are self-employed. Others are students on holidays, or victims of ASUU strike. Still others might have work to do in the morning but they stress themselves to do their research or even letters at night in order to save money. Night browsing, as I said earlier, is cheaper [/b]than browsing in the day.

Cyber Cafés will not close down, though there will be a reduction in income.

Have you ever tried to run a business? Do you know that so many businessmen are in debt, and barely making enough profit to keep their business running? Any [b]unexpected loss of revenue can cause a small business to capsize. In areas where there's a lot of cyber-cafe competition, many will definitely close down.

The genuine ones will continue to patronise

The scammers will also continue to patronise the cyber-cafes they were patronising before. Why not? Do you think a corrupt cyber-cafe owner care about the law? Only the genuine ones will be hurt because they'll stop night browsing. The corrupt cyber-cafes will just bribe the police to look the other way. Apart from that, the scammers will just start to do more scamming during the day. This measure unjustly harms many people.

If you have a telephone line with internet connection, your ISP would ask for a copy of your drivers licence or you international passport.

Don't make me laugh. Scammers are experts at forging documents. Don't forget Oluwole.

Addendum:
All over the world, governments are using "security" as an excuse to curtail peoples' freedoms. Yet even if such laws do not work, it becomes impossible to remove them. It's our social duty to oppose harmful/useless laws. Such laws are approved to the detriment of the common man because our politicians are richer than us.

we stopped night browsing more than a year ago because it was not a lucrative venture. 95% of our night clientele were either engaged in pornography or downloading of songs illegally using kazza not to talk of those in the "419" category.

our computers soon had so much spy and adware plus viruse that we decided that even if they pay N1000 per head, it won't be worth the trouble as the cost of diesel and other maintenance cost were quite high.

EFCC ban though might not have the desired results as the big time offenders now have easier home access via the PTOs.

i support the EFFC 100%

@otoks:

In other words, you support the law because it doesn't seem to affect you. What if in the future NEPA becomes more stable in your area? What if you learn how to install and properly configure anti-spyware and anti-virus programs? What if you decide to use the night for LAN gaming since browsing goes on during the day?

If a law is bad, it is bad. You shouldn't keep quiet because it doesn't affect you personally. Or else tommorrow, a new law will be created that affects you and others won't care because it doesn't affect them. It does not affect me, but I am concerned about it because it affects others in whose shoes I was in the past. Thanks.

ITS DICTATORIAL
only in Nigeria. efcc, they do something good and then turn around and act like village headmaster. If you don't fully understand what this means, its simply saying be cut-off the oustside world at night, no information at night, sleep like the sun has set and the moon is not bright enough

My two-cents.

I believe that Seun is right in saying that the new law is rather heavy-handed. I know that Nigeria is moving forwards in many ways, but every now and then we see things that remind us that we still have a culture of throwing the baby away with the bath water. Why the EFCC believes that such a heavy-handed law will prove effective in its noble fight against corruption beats me. The results can only be in the short-term.

There is no doubt that the cyber-cafes have become a haven for corrupt online practices. But in the midst of it all, there are bound to be lawful users of the internet in these cafes, and these are the ones we should be concerned about. The internet has made fraud easy for many corrupt Nigerians, but we must also admit that it has helped in enlightening and opening up the world to nigerians. If today, corrupt Nigerians decide to use mobile telephones to send SCAM text messages to innocent Nigerians, will the EFCC ban all text messages completely?

So what then is the solution? What I think would be a better start to fighting this challenge would be to set some sort of standardisation amongst cyber-cafes, and enforce it. What I mean is that the focus should be on ensuring that the cyber-cafes do not encourage corrupt practices on their computers. For instance, if a cyber-cafe is found to be running its business without appropriate restrictions to the sites that its clientele can visit, or '419' practioners are arrested there more than twice (for instance), they could be forced to pay a substantial fine. Now I may not be able now to provide the perfect 'standards' the cafes should follow - but I am sure the EFCC with all the resources at its disposal can come up with more appropriate sanctions than what they have done now.

The bottomline is this - the emphasis should be in making it hard for fraudsters to carry on theor nefarious activities in these cyber-cafes - and the way to do this, in my humble opinion, is to focus on the cafes themselves.

Seun i think u are one of the generals son or relations cos if u own a cafe what will u do?will u sit and watch ur biz go down. here our leaders are worst they cos they do more than what this yahoo yahoo boys are doing.make EFCC find clear the leader first.and make this country a place for all to live and do better business.am not yahoo yahoo boy am just say my own option.
If the country is good i know there will be no yahoo yahoo

Sorry seun u are right what i address was to Lucifer not u i did not check the person that post that reply.

[b]U know one that pisses me off about Nigeria law enforcement agencies is dat when dey have no solution to a problem they invent a solution that will affect the whole populace as a whole not the guilty ones. Take the instance when commercial motor-bikes popularly know as "okada" was banned did the govt n security agencies consider the effect it's going to ve on Lagosians as a whole? with all the gates locked at night u ve to work a great distance to get home! as if dats not enough becos of the ineffectiveness of EFCC to be more strategic they ve decided to ban night browsing in cybercafes. Has EFCC now solved the problem? or created a new problem for genuine business people, I think sometimes that our law enforcement agencies re the main reseon while crime is still very high in this country apart from aiding and abating with criminals they convert genuine business people who despite all the frustration of NEPA and it chorines are still frustrated out of business by law enforcement agencies in the country. And who is there to challenge EFCC nobody!!!!!!!!!!

well i think is high time ribadu n his soldiers should sit down and think of a way of handling this cybercafe palaver

[/b]

i dont know about 90% night browser's doing porn and 419 but i do know,
given the option to browse at a stretch i'd choose night cuz daytime is prime time,
even if u aint a student or in school daytime hours are more precious ,there are prime time its more expensive to shell out 8hrs of daylight time ,than it is at night- u just giving away ur sleep time.
this efcc people are just dumb nitwits, by pluggin one whole ,their damning a whole industry- why ,? na so common go they suffer for naija.
again, with browsing, as for me, all these 1hr time is crap it dont suffice nothing,
but with night its more than enuff at half the cost.
just another case of low quality leaving in a third world country.
cyber-cafe operators who survive it would probably hike tarrifs-why?
cuz if aint browsing day-at their price- u cant browse at any time. boy e go hard ooo !!

Seun,

This is interesting,I just call a friend who was planning on setting up a Cyber Cafe for his parents in Nigeria,he's got over 20 computers to start off in October.Please give me more information on this Night browsing story.

What is Night browsing?From what time does this ban start,from 6pm-6am?

The ban is nothing but ridiculous,how do you stop a fraudulent email being sent during the day?If I was a Fraudster,I will definitely like to browse from home not from a public place.

I would like to look at this with a slightly neutral aspect. I have owned a cybercafe in the past and by my experience, night browsing is usually more problematic than whatever it generates for you. (I honestly don't support the stopping of night browsing in cafes, because it does not solve the problem as Seun pointed out). However, to be honest, 90% of people who browse at night are usually dubious. (That doesn't mean that they are all dubious). I myself found out that it's a lot better doing my research at night, because i can download a lot faster, especially when it comes to downloading educational/tutorial software.

Experience taught me that the chatters and likes are tolerable. It's the mass mailers that really cause a lot of problems. First of all, they run bandwidth consuming software that slows down your system. They then get you into trouble with your ISP as they can track most of the stuff coming from your IP address. god help you if the FBI or Interpol come knocking at your door.

On second thoughts, Seun, I think I agree with you. It's unfair to stop night browsing. If you want to prevent the yahoo boys, you can easily buy software that blocks most of their activity (but that can also have a downside of it's own). the only problem is that I don't think the cybercafe business is for honest people. 90% of your customers are scammers anyway. how can you make a living with the honest 10%.

I weighed my options and shut down before it became a "bad investment'.

we stopped night browsing more than a year ago because it was not a lucrative venture. 95% of our night clientele were either engaged in pornography or downloading of songs illegally using kazza not to talk of those in the "419" category.

our computers soon had so much spy and adware plus viruse that we decided that even if they pay N1000 per head, it won't be worth the trouble as the cost of diesel and other maintenance cost were quite high.

EFCC ban though might not have the desired results as the big time offenders now have easier home access via the PTOs.

otokx, not suprise that we have a thing sorry a person like you here, self centredness, bad Govt. boy

i support the EFFC 100%

and you thoniaslim, wats your own or is it cus you are from a rich home _{thats if you are not browsing from ur sugar daddy's office}

the ban id no real solution to cyber crime to me.EFCC i dnt kno wat has got in they head.that's crap abeg

As if that's not all.

Have u guys heard that the airtime charges should also increase?  A thirty-minute ticket should now go for N100, while the one-hour ticket should be sold for N200.  Most cafes have started implementing this new law.  They have succeeded in scaring away the legitimate internet users. The so-called scammers are the ones who can afford these new rates.

There are some other recommendations by ACTON (Association of Cybercafe and Telecentre Operators of Nigeria) for Cybercafe owners.  I'll be back with those.

wether the ban was done in good faith or not, it simply shows that the security agencies and govt alike do not respect our fundamental human rights

it is simply dictatorship because they are failling in performing their roles

they ban okada with excuse of robbery in the nite
if i might ask dont they still rob in the day time , has it reduce crime rate in any essence? the answer is no because now the robbers wait for u onthe road and deal with u
there are places u can not cross while on foot and we all know that they have just created another excuse to cover up their incapacities.

419 is a function of greed both the victim and the victor are funstions of greed so we better start looking for a solution for that
if the economy was better and if there were good jobs, tell me wont it reduce crime rate
a hungry man that is idle will always look for way to survive, thats why we r nigerians we know how to survive

inconclusion this is a breach of my fundamental human right i should decide to sleep and not to sleep at nite at my own will
while i was in school i did my project at nite cos it was cheaper and affordable then cant we allow younger generations to enjoy same?

very soon they would soon ban mobile phones and say it entices young girls to go sell their bodies so as to hve a very expensive phone

ThoniaSlim:

i support the EFFC 100%

No doubt this country will find it difficult to develop. With Internet everywhere, you support closing down night browsing. Do you know that it cost just two hundred naira only to browse for the whole night, while in the day it will only get you one hour.

Look at Glo and MTN, you can make a call as cheap as six naira from 12am to 5am. Many people now find it cheap to  make call at that period.

If I am an Internet scammer. I will get my self a home Internet access.

What is the gurrantee that banning night browsing will stop scam

Lucifer:

Seun, I believe you own a cyber café that is why you are bitter. 90% of those who stay out all night to perform the so-called NIGHT BROWSING are not doing it for educational purposes. It is mainly for pornography and 419!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To the extent now that a lot of secondary school boys are into Yahoo-Yahoo (small time 419) because they can walk into any cyber café and just perform their deeds undisturbed and unmonitored. All because they can pay a few Nairas for all night browsing. The genuine ones use public internet facilities in the day time not at night. Tell me, what would somebody, a student or worker, be doing all night in an internet room? Isn't the person going to work or school in the morning?

Lucifer what of the 10% remaining?

Banning night browsing is a means to make Internet costly so that secondary school boys can no more afford Internet access. Is it a crime that Internet access cost a few naira?

Can any thing good come from Lucifer?

Lucifer:


For your information, ISPs have started collating data of their customers. If you have a telephone line with internet connection, your ISP would ask for a copy of your drivers licence or you international passport. This will make private internet facility owners to be more responsible.

You will be suprised that many of the scammer will have twenty driving licence and International passort. There is no identification here.

Most of the GSM provider gives Internet access and you know that if I want to buy 1000 sim cardS i will just walk to Otigba and buy. No name requires, no identification, no drivers licence, no internation passport. And if they block you line, you buy another one. So??

Cyber crime is in every country. You can not eliminate it, you can only control it. What EFCC should do is to be a watch dog. We have police, they should do their job and we should not be made to suffer the inefficiency of the police. If the police are doing their work, they will be able to track scammer especially those that operate at cyber cafe. To my opinion is even easier to monitor cyber cafe than home users. Atleast you know where cyber cafes are. You can go their at odd hour and check what people are doing.

IF EFCC CAN NOT SOLVE OUR PROBLEMS, AT LEAST LET THEM NOT INCREASE IT.

I agree with Seun completely. I don't agree with the EFCC ban. The EFCC cannot deny us our basic right to freedom of information just because they want to catch some crooks. The EFCC lacks the most rudimentary police and investigative equipment. Rather than employ a dragnet policy, they should ask the government to provide them with sophisticated equipment with which they can track scammers and other criminals. Scams happen everywhere, but you don't hear of developed countries banning people from browsing at night. Supposing you are a legitimate trader on the internet, it actually makes more sense for you to trade at night since this is the time that traders in the Far East and the East Coast of America are awake. All these idiotic draconian measures will not stop fraud in Nigeria. It will only create a deadly power-obsessed organisation (EFCC) that will soon be searching phones and perusing diaries of anyone that fits a particular profile.

Q.

What do u have to say to these recommendations by ACTON and EFCC?

DUE CARE for Cybercafés by ACTONigeria

Due Care is a working standard accepted by EFCC and must be implemented by every cybercafé operator in order to curb cyber crime and provide information on all users.

• That there is no more privacy for any internet user in the cybercafé.
• That responsibility of policing cyber crime is reposed on operators.
• Every cybercafé shall be duly registered with CAC (Corporate Affairs Commission).
• Every cybercafé must be duly registered with NCC.
• Every cybercafé must be duly registered with a registered Nigerian licensed ISP.
• Every cybercafé must be registered with EFCC.
• Night browsing shall be suspended until registration with EFCC is duly completed.
• Every cybercafé must install an acceptable and standard surveillance system in the cybercafé.
• Every cybercafé must expose all computers used in browsing; the era of hidden computers for browsing is hereby closed.
• Every cybercafé will be a watchdog unto the other such that any cybercafé still indulging in the cyber crime will be dialogued with by a committee of cafe operators. If dialogue fails after three attempts, we shall have no other option than to expose the cybercafé to EFCC.
• Every cybercafé will have a direct email and telephone of EFCC to lay requests and complaints.

Features of the Software:
• Should have a template or the identification of members (Name, Address, Email and Telephone number).
• Should be able to block undesired program/websites - this will be dynamic allowing for any addition (programs and websites) when necessary.
• Should be able to keep track and log users (members) activities - the records will be kept for the first three months.
• Should allow a view of the client's desktop from the server.
• Should be able to link the public IP to the local IP to enable identification of the system on the LAN.
• Duration 3 months.

A monthly meeting to be held between cybercafé operators and EFCC to review progress and to uncover new tactics of offenders in order to nip it in the bud.

A meeting of cybercafé operators, EFCC and local police to take place in every district as we inaugurate our local chapters.

anybody who support this action is probably losing his human right.you have the right to do whatever at anytime to do anything.EFCC should find another way of this dealing with this situation not by making uncessary law on the whole nigeria.ANYWAY IS THERE HUMAN RIGHT IN NIGERIA?

Based on what goodguy posted, the ban on night browsing is not permanent. I'm a little bit relieved. It seems as if the ban on night browsing is being used to compel the cyber-cafes to get registered. Seems reasonable.

"That there is no more privacy for any internet user in the cybercafé." is a problem, but a much smaller one.

Your Country is turning into a Nanny State.

Nigeria is becoming a "jelly state" How can you tell people when to surf the net and not ?These people are out of their minds!!Next, they will tell us when and what to eat,what to wear,how to think and what to say.Fight cyber crimes through other means,not by limiting the rights of citizens to surf the net.Get a life!!!!

I think the ban is a good thing!!

see let me state this here, when a president of a nation, a vice president, a former senate president, a former Inspector General of police who should be the header of stoping criminal and sometimes finiancial misconduct. Governors and even Local Goverment Chairman, I guess this is corruption in high order,until the EFCC stops the Highly sitted corrupt leaders the nation would never stop Yahoo! Yahoo! because the citizens are working by examples e.g ask a 5yrs old boy what do you want to become he life they may say a president when you ask why? he tells you because i wanna become very rich and even steal money at times you know.closing down a cafe means trash to me cuz the real criminal are high there sitting and even nuting there ties with confident while a poor boy that the economic situation of the country as teared apart,is just practicing what he has learned from the nation's news cast 419 promo. he is not a fraudster he is just displaying what he has learned from his leaders how to remove zero and how to add zero but display is own physically .Nigerians i hope these words of mine will make a lil impart in some ppl's life thanks so much

i feel so bad about the recent ban on night browsing,it's not as if i support yahoo yahoo runs,i dont think it is the best way to approach this matter,the people that are deeply affected are the poor and indigent people,i could rememeber when i used to apply for job,i have to accumulate the application so i can send them in a night browsing,it has been erroneosly believed that every young man seen in a cafe is a yahoo yahoo person,imagine the other day i just came into a cafe in the afternoon to print out an important document,not long i came in i had just put in my password ,i saw about 10 mobile police men enter and asked everybody on the system to come out and enter inside their van without even asking or checking what you are doing on the net,i felt so embraced ,my only saving grace was that my ticket showed that i just logged on a minute ago,if not i would have joined them just like that,this is one of the problems with the law enforcement agents we have in this land,EFCC should check the'high and the mighty' how they loot our money and empoverish us everyday,you read about how much this one has taken and all that,how do they want we youths to feel.i feel if jobs are created many youths will NOT indulge in 419 or yahoo yahoo.i dont think this is the best way to stop this act.Make i no too talk o!

Bad decision. As is usual, no one is attacking the root cause of 419. It is attractive because there are no jobs for one, but mainly because the justice system has failed. Most people would find it more attractive to go the easy route to get money when they know that 9 out of 10 they won't be caught.

Old Shame:

I think THE BAN IS A GOOD THING!!

blackmail or what? Which agency of the government are working?

If you have a geniue case please state it here and now?