The Federal Republic of Nigeria is getting a very bad reputation because of the now very famous Nigerian scam emails, which are emanating from the country. These scam emails are oriented to attract people by offering them part of large sums of money that need to be claimed.
The moral of the story entails a nigerian person who sends you an email in which the person claims that he or she knows about a large sum of money that the bank where he or she works is holding, but noone is claiming. Thus, he/she requests your help to withdraw the money. However, he/she is going to request money upfront in order to pay for bogus fees. The latter is where the scammers make their killings. You, the victim, never get to see the money promised to you nor do you get the money invested back.
In a twist of events, the Nigerian government now states that people who are ripped off by the so called Nigerian scams are just as guilty as the scammers and should be jailed. Specifically, this response was directed to Australians. Australians have fallen victims the most times to the Nigerian scam. Australian news outlets report that Australians lose at least $36 million a year to the online scams. A professor named Olu Agbi said, “Greedy Australians who tried to partake in these crimes-even though they are scams-should be arrested as well.” “People who send their money are as guilty as those who are asking them to send the money.”
Facts about Nigeria (reference from Wikipidia):
- Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and the eighth most populous country in the world with a population of over 140 million.
- The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the West, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in the north. Its coast lies on the Gulf of Guinea, part of the Atlantic Ocean, in the south.
- Former colony of Portugal and Great Britain.
- Nigeria four main religions are Islam, Christianity, Orisha and Animism.
2 Comments
August 23, 2008 at 3:19 am
In my mind: “Sorry, that’s not how justice is served. The victims did not commit a crime, despite the intent in supporting it.”
Even then, not all of them show to be illegal in the first place. (In terms of the method used to pull the money together.)
August 23, 2008 at 9:08 am
I am with u. They did not start it.