LAGOS 419 TRICKS

Here are 10 Lagos 419 tricks you must be wary of.
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.
Thesefraudsters 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.
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.
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 tospiral down a
tunnel of lies.
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.
Familiar Face
This form of scam is activated and completed in less than a minute
so you need to be careful andsmart. 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.
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 toentice 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.
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 largeamounts 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.
Foreign Relative
This scam also involves mobile communication butunlike 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.
Job
With a lot of people looking for jobs in Lagos, thisscam 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.
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
Source: naij.com