CYNTHIA Okosogu's alleged killers might have drawn their inspiration of luring the former Nasarawa State University's postgraduate student to Lagos to defraud and kill her from an incident that occurred in Ottawa, Canada, last year.
As the story goes, a group of three teenage girls; two of whom were 15 years old, while the third was 17, lured three of their teenage peers, ranging in age from 13 to 17, and sold them for sex to some randy men.
According to Ottawa police, the teenagers used the social media to lure and ambush their victims under the facade of hanging out and cavorting.
"There was no ill-intent in the invite, obviously things changed once that happened," said the city police.
However, as soon as the victims showed up at the rendezvous, they were taken to a townhouse in the 2400-block of Walkley Road where they were held hostage. From there, the girls took their victims to other locations where adult men bought them for sex.
As put by an observer, the social media and/or technology is a veritable means of trapping potential human trafficking victims. "It's next to impossible to pimp and exploit without technology. Whether it be through recruitment, keeping tabs on the girls, technology is definitely part of the equation."
Janella Spear was not lured into a romping tryst with any stud but she lost her entire savings, her husband's retirement account, her house and car to an e-mail scam.
According to the American registered nurse, she was swayed by the scammer's reference to her grandfather, JB Spears, with whom the family had lost contact for years, who was said to have left $20million for his estranged family.
Wondering how the scammers could have known about her relationship with JB Spears and the money unless it was true evoked curiosity in her. She believed the claim of the scammers and agreed to forward the requested $100 needed to clear some issues before paying the $20million into her account.
If the payment had ended with the $100, Spear would have counted herself fortunate, but it didn't.
After getting her $100, the scammers, rather than pay the $20million to Spear, ran her through the whole programme. They informed her that "President George Bush and FBI Director Robert Muller (Mueller)" knew about the transaction and needed her to cooperate with them so that the money would not end up in wrong hands.
Spear was sucked in on this.
To further convince her, the scammers sent documents and certificates purportedly from "the Bank of Nigeria" and even from the United Nations guaranteeing her payment. To make the bait look more attractive, they informed her that they just found new documents showing that the real money she was entitled to was $26.6 million. She was, therefore, requested to send $8,300 to perfect the processing. The woman did not think twice before sending the money.
Seeing that she was willing to play along, the scammers tightened the noose on her and demanded more money and she kept paying.
When it was perceived that she was vacillating with payment, the scammers came up with a sealer. They forwarded to her a letter from the Nigerian president, FBI Director Mueller and President Bush. The letters (all fake) solicited her cooperation to get the money so that it would not get to the hands of terrorists. Believing that the letters were genuine, Spear continued to send money to the scammers.
The scam continued for two years during which Spear parted with almost $400,000. She had to empty her life saving, her husband's retirement account, had to mortgage the family house and took a lien out on the family car. Everyone she knew tried to dissuade her from continuing on what she considered was her journey to claiming "her inheritance" but the more she thought of how much she had spent, the more she wanted to continue especially as the scammers kept assuring her that the next payment would be the last and her inheritance would be in.
By the time she came to terms with the fact that her grandfather left no inheritance for her, she had lost all she had gathered over the years.
It is not always that scammers who leverage on technology are interested in the flesh or huge sums of money; sometimes they just want to get some little amount of money from their victims. That was the case of Rotimi, a journalist.
He was at home with his wife one morning when his handset rang. The number was hidden but the caller masqueraded as one of Rotimi's senior colleagues.
The scammer told Rotimi that he was involved in an accident along the Lagos-Ibadan express road and would appreciate Rotimi sending airtime worth N10,000 to him so he would be able to get in touch with people who would assist him. He promised to refund the money as soon as he got back to the office. He dictated a number to which the airtime should be sent since he had lost his handset in the accident.
Late Osokogu
When Jide, a graduate of Mechanical Engineering, read about a vacancy announcement in a newspaper, his thought was that probably his long wait for a job would finally come to an end. Therefore, he wasted no time to visit the website in the advertisement and logged on to upload his resume.
A few days after, he got a text message from the company, which was actually a recruitment agency, inviting him for an aptitude test the following week.
According to Jide, when he got there, there were many other people for the test. They all wrote the aptitude test and went away. Jide was later to get a text message from the company congratulating him on his success. He was asked to pay N5,000 into an account immediately and visit the office the following week with his teller to collect his employment letter.
"I was so happy to hear that. I scouted around for the money and paid it within a week. But when I visited the office, I was surprised to find it under lock and key. All attempts to locate the people proved abortive. The people have disappeared into the thin air with my money," Jide said.
A colleague recounted his experience when he got a call in the middle of a night from a supposed ritualist who told him that some people had paid him to offer some sacrifices to harm him. The ritualist told him that if he wanted him to refuse the request of the enemies, he had to send some money to him. He asked him to send airtime worth N10,000 for appeasement.
"I was too confused because I did not know how he could have gotten my name and number. So, the following money, I sent the airtime to him. It was while discussing with a colleague about my experience and he told me that he had a similar experience that I realised that I had been scammed," he said.
Commenting on the antics of scammers who leverage on technology, a psychologist, Mr Lanre Sodeinde, said there was no end to what they could do to hoodwink their potential victims.
"As soon as they realise that people have caught up with a particular antic, they switch to another. But one common thread in all their antics is that they appeal to human greed. Anyone who has a grip on their greed is not likely to fall victim to any scam," he said.
SOURCE: NIGERIA TRIBUNE
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