14 yr old uses his God given talent to become rich. He scams idiots

[Morg]

LINKIE

Cute kid, now someone shoot him

 

[blind_fury]

Notice how Nigerians see internet scams on westerners as reparations for slavery. lol!

 

[The Game]

lol, those Nigerian kids will hoodwink ya in a blink of an eye, I should know I'm of Nigerian descent myself.

Notice how Nigerians see internet scams on westerners as reparations for slavery. lol!

Not really, its just that in a country where there is no middle class, unfortunately thievery of any sort is an accpeted way of life.

 

[Danalys]

he needs a talent for empathy.

 

[Mister Sinister]

[/quote]"White people are too gullible. They are rich, and whatever I gyp them out of is small change to them."[/quote]
White people, rich, I wish.

 

[Noon]

I'm white.....can I be rich now?

 

[blind_fury]

I think he means "rich" compared to most nigerians.

 

[Odin's Lapdog]

he makes me so proud....

 

[Iceman]

I can't believe how much money they make.

 

[War Lord]

I can't believe how much money they make.

Well, if you send 5,000,000 emails and if just 1/2 percent respond, that's equal to 25 thousand people. If even 1/10 of those followup, that's 2.5 thousand and if 1/10 of these follow you down the yellow brick road, you've scammed 250 people into giving you $1,000.

It's just a numbers game and in any population, there will be 250 stupid people who will be suckered by any particular scam.

 

[D.Rex]

Ha. White people are too gullible. That line made me laugh. Good for him scamming thousands into giving him tons of money. Is he like the richest person in Nigeria now?

 

[Elijya]

Online scams create "Yahoo! millionaires"
In Lagos, where scamming is an art, the quickest path to wealth for the cyber-generation runs through a computer screen.

By Leonard Lawal, FORTUNE
May 22, 2006: 3:28 PM EDT
(FORTUNE Magazine) - Akin is, like many things in cyberspace, an alias. In real life he's 14. He wears Adidas sneakers, a Rolex Submariner watch, and a kilo of gold around his neck.

Akin, who lives in Lagos, is one of a new generation of entrepreneurs that has emerged in this city of 15 million, Nigeria's largest. His mother makes $30 a month as a cleaner, his father about the same hustling at bus stations. But Akin has made it big working long days at Internet cafes and is now the main provider for his family and legions of relatives.

Call him a "Yahoo! millionaire."

Akin buys things online - laptops, BlackBerries, cameras, flat-screen TVs - using stolen credit cards and aliases. He has the loot shipped via FedEx or DHL to safe houses in Europe, where it is received by friends, then shipped on to Lagos to be sold on the black market. (He figures Americans are too smart to sell a camera on eBay to a buyer with an address in Nigeria.)

Akin's main office is an Internet cafe in the Ikeja section of Lagos. He spends up to ten hours a day there, seven days a week, huddled over one of 50 computers, working his scams.

And he's not alone: The cafe is crowded most of the time with other teenagers, like Akin, working for a "chairman" who buys the computer time and hires them to extract e-mail addresses and credit card information from the thin air of cyberspace. Akin's chairman, who is computer illiterate, gets a 60 percent cut and reserves another 20 percent to pay off law enforcement officials who come around or teachers who complain when the boys cut school. That still puts plenty of cash in Akin's pocket.

A sign at the door of the cafe reads, WE DO NOT TOLERATE SCAMS IN THIS PLACE. DO NOT USE E-MAIL EXTRACTORS OR SEND MULTIPLE MAILS OR HACK CREDIT CARDS. YOU WILL BE HANDED OVER TO THE POLICE. NO 419 ACTIVITY IN THIS CAFE. The sign is a joke; 419 activity, which refers to the section of the Nigerian law dealing with obtaining things by trickery, is a national pastime. There are no coherent laws relating to e-scams, the police are mostly computer illiterate, and penalties for financial crimes are light.

No penalties for breaking the law

"The deterrent factor is not there at all," says Thomas Oli, a Lagos lawyer, citing the case of a former police inspector general who was convicted of stealing more than $100 million and got only six months in jail.

"What do you want me to do?" Akin asks in pidgin English, explaining why he turned to a life of Internet crime. "It is my God-given talent. Our politicians, they do their own; me, I'm doing my own. I feed my family - my sister, my mother, my popsie. Man must survive."

The scams perpetrated by Akin and his comrades are many and varied: moneygram interceptions, Western Union hijackings, check laundering, identity theft, and outright begging, with tall tales of dying relatives and large sums of money in search of safe haven. One popular online fraud often practiced by women (or boys pretending to be women) involves separating lonely men from their money.

Attempts to speak to government officials about Internet crime were futile. They all claimed ignorance of such scams; some laughed it off as Western propaganda.

But last November the Economic Fraud and Financial Crimes Commission won a high-profile case that had dragged on for years against Emmanuel Nwude, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25 years for bilking a Brazilian bank out of $242 million using an Internet scam involving phony bank drafts. The commission is also pursuing a case against 419 kingpin Fred Ajudua, a lawyer and businessman accused of using the Internet to steal $1 million from a victim in Germany.

Some officials, who asked not be identified, said young people are drawn to Internet crime as a way of getting back at a society that has no plans for them. Others see it as a form of reparation for the sins of the West.

Or as Akin puts it, "White people are too gullible. They are rich, and whatever I gyp them out of is small change to them."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------




Ok, beyond the "he's an ******* scammer" response we all naturally have to hearing this kind of thing, the part I find intriguing is how his mother only makes $30 a month, and he supports her and the rest of his family. Yes, this is 100% wrong, but that circumstance certainly puts a twist on the situation, especially when you consider what the quality of life can be like in Africa.

$1 Million dollars is uncalled for, that goes without saying, but if you break the situation down to a basic level, what sounds better to you? A wealthy American buying a $1500 camcoder as his latest toy, versus a poor family in Africa eating properly for a few months. Which would you prefer?

stealing is wrong, but it's the old "would you steal a loaf of bread to feed your starving family" debate

 

[blind_fury]

Old!

get it 2gether noob!

 

[Elijya]

look at the date, it was posted yesterday


n00b

 

[Tsunulia]

Too lazy to read it all

 

[blind_fury]

Posted today by another mod!

n00b x1000

 

[Da Docta]

Case Closed

 

[Erzengel]

http://www.superherohype.com/forums/showthread.php?t=232989

 

[Whirlysplat]

Online scams create "Yahoo! millionaires"
In Lagos, where scamming is an art, the quickest path to wealth for the cyber-generation runs through a computer screen.

By Leonard Lawal, FORTUNE
May 22, 2006: 3:28 PM EDT
(FORTUNE Magazine) - Akin is, like many things in cyberspace, an alias. In real life he's 14. He wears Adidas sneakers, a Rolex Submariner watch, and a kilo of gold around his neck.

Akin, who lives in Lagos, is one of a new generation of entrepreneurs that has emerged in this city of 15 million, Nigeria's largest. His mother makes $30 a month as a cleaner, his father about the same hustling at bus stations. But Akin has made it big working long days at Internet cafes and is now the main provider for his family and legions of relatives.

Call him a "Yahoo! millionaire."

Akin buys things online - laptops, BlackBerries, cameras, flat-screen TVs - using stolen credit cards and aliases. He has the loot shipped via FedEx or DHL to safe houses in Europe, where it is received by friends, then shipped on to Lagos to be sold on the black market. (He figures Americans are too smart to sell a camera on eBay to a buyer with an address in Nigeria.)

Akin's main office is an Internet cafe in the Ikeja section of Lagos. He spends up to ten hours a day there, seven days a week, huddled over one of 50 computers, working his scams.

And he's not alone: The cafe is crowded most of the time with other teenagers, like Akin, working for a "chairman" who buys the computer time and hires them to extract e-mail addresses and credit card information from the thin air of cyberspace. Akin's chairman, who is computer illiterate, gets a 60 percent cut and reserves another 20 percent to pay off law enforcement officials who come around or teachers who complain when the boys cut school. That still puts plenty of cash in Akin's pocket.

A sign at the door of the cafe reads, WE DO NOT TOLERATE SCAMS IN THIS PLACE. DO NOT USE E-MAIL EXTRACTORS OR SEND MULTIPLE MAILS OR HACK CREDIT CARDS. YOU WILL BE HANDED OVER TO THE POLICE. NO 419 ACTIVITY IN THIS CAFE. The sign is a joke; 419 activity, which refers to the section of the Nigerian law dealing with obtaining things by trickery, is a national pastime. There are no coherent laws relating to e-scams, the police are mostly computer illiterate, and penalties for financial crimes are light.

No penalties for breaking the law

"The deterrent factor is not there at all," says Thomas Oli, a Lagos lawyer, citing the case of a former police inspector general who was convicted of stealing more than $100 million and got only six months in jail.

"What do you want me to do?" Akin asks in pidgin English, explaining why he turned to a life of Internet crime. "It is my God-given talent. Our politicians, they do their own; me, I'm doing my own. I feed my family - my sister, my mother, my popsie. Man must survive."

The scams perpetrated by Akin and his comrades are many and varied: moneygram interceptions, Western Union hijackings, check laundering, identity theft, and outright begging, with tall tales of dying relatives and large sums of money in search of safe haven. One popular online fraud often practiced by women (or boys pretending to be women) involves separating lonely men from their money.

Attempts to speak to government officials about Internet crime were futile. They all claimed ignorance of such scams; some laughed it off as Western propaganda.

But last November the Economic Fraud and Financial Crimes Commission won a high-profile case that had dragged on for years against Emmanuel Nwude, who pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25 years for bilking a Brazilian bank out of $242 million using an Internet scam involving phony bank drafts. The commission is also pursuing a case against 419 kingpin Fred Ajudua, a lawyer and businessman accused of using the Internet to steal $1 million from a victim in Germany.

Some officials, who asked not be identified, said young people are drawn to Internet crime as a way of getting back at a society that has no plans for them. Others see it as a form of reparation for the sins of the West.

Or as Akin puts it, "White people are too gullible. They are rich, and whatever I gyp them out of is small change to them."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------




Ok, beyond the "he's an ******* scammer" response we all naturally have to hearing this kind of thing, the part I find intriguing is how his mother only makes $30 a month, and he supports her and the rest of his family. Yes, this is 100% wrong, but that circumstance certainly puts a twist on the situation, especially when you consider what the quality of life can be like in Africa.

$1 Million dollars is uncalled for, that goes without saying, but if you break the situation down to a basic level, what sounds better to you? A wealthy American buying a $1500 camcoder as his latest toy, versus a poor family in Africa eating properly for a few months. Which would you prefer?

stealing is wrong, but it's the old "would you steal a loaf of bread to feed your starving family" debate

It's not an old article but sadly it's an age old story. Poverty, Greed, Opportunity = Crime.

- Whirly

 

[D.Rex]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------Ok, beyond the "he's an ******* scammer" response we all naturally have to hearing this kind of thing, the part I find intriguing is how his mother only makes $30 a month, and he supports her and the rest of his family. Yes, this is 100% wrong, but that circumstance certainly puts a twist on the situation, especially when you consider what the quality of life can be like in Africa.

$1 Million dollars is uncalled for, that goes without saying, but if you break the situation down to a basic level, what sounds better to you? A wealthy American buying a $1500 camcoder as his latest toy, versus a poor family in Africa eating properly for a few months. Which would you prefer?

stealing is wrong, but it's the old "would you steal a loaf of bread to feed your starving family" debate

True. It's a case of a modern day Robin Hood. Stealing from the rich and feeding the poor. It falls into the gray area of right and wrong. Hey I hold no ill will against him. If they don't want to be swindled people should take more time to find out where they are actually sending their money too.

 

[Sarge 2.0]

He's not really feeding to the poor...he's feeding to himself. Sure, it's benevolent that he's helping out his family, but sucking away other people's money isn't the right way to do it. Of course, the gray areas are undeniable, but there are better (but about twenty times more difficult) ways that he could support his family well.

I just don't like that this is getting romanticized.

 

[Elijya]

Posted today by another mod!

n00b x1000

with no words in the title or post I could have reasonably searched for to find it (except for "millionaire")

 

[InsaneMembrane]

heh he's probably Yoruba

I'm Nigerian I lived there for awhile before I immigrated to Canada, life's though there I mean it doesnt excuse the actions but people there most definitely think everyone in west is Bill Gates rich, trust me my relatives hit my dad up for more money than I do.

 

[War Lord]

heh he's probably Yoruba

I'm Nigerian I lived there for awhile before I immigrated to Canada, life's though there I mean it doesnt excuse the actions but people there most definitely think everyone in west is Bill Gates rich, trust me my relatives hit my dad up for more money than I do.

That's because your dad can always get a new son, but a new brother, father, uncle, etc is much harder to get.

 

[Odin's Lapdog]

heh he's probably Yoruba

damn straight, we get all the smart ones, keep the dumb ones up north...