Hi Nick,
I'm happy to be here and would like to contribute to this interesting post.
As a Nigerian living in Nigeria, I feel ashamed when I read and hear about these scam stories said to be emanating from Nigeria. But what intrigues me most is the manner and readiness the supposed developed world fall for such cheap lies of promises. It is suprising that some people are so inordinate or decide to be so, that they are oblivious of certain basic facts about different countries of the world. If you have a business proposal from some guy or somewhere, common sense dictates you should try and find out the origin of such business especially one running into million of USD (for your information $1 = 140 Naira) before even deciding to reply.
Nigeria, even when it rates as the 7th world Crude Oil producer is at the same time among the 10 poorest nations of the world. What does this tell you? That more than 70% of the 140million Nigerians are living below poverty line and would have little or nothing to offer you in terms of such scammy figures presented in most of these mails. The remaining super-rich <30% are already investing their state-stollen money in your country and other developed nations and do not have time to even look at the internet not to talk of making you some faceless offer. If they need to do business with you, my friend, they will call you, discuss directly with you, visit you and cement such deals without 'a second ear' Reason is that they know what the internet is all about, they don't really need all those hype and exposures and don't expect them to use public free email boxes like yahoo, hotmail etc.
It is so easy to have access to whatever information you need today, thank God for Internet and most Nigerian parastatals are in the Internet, they have their websites (Again you have to be tactful on this or maybe consult your embassy for confirmation). So if someone informs you of a business in Central Bank of Nigeria or Nigerian National Petroleum Coporation (NNPC), it'll be foolhardy to swallow such hook and sinker without due checks.
Having said this, I want to say that in Nigeria, we still have quite a large population of trustworthy people who are working so real hard and earning their living honestly and of which you can still do genuine business with. But they wont come through scam letters or fraudulent phone calls.
Infact, the preponderance of economic and financial crimes like Advance Fee Fraud (419), Money Laundering, etc has had severe negative consequences on Nigeria, including decreased Foreign Direct Investments in the country and tainting of Nigeria's national image. The menace of these crimes and the recognition of the magnitude and gravity of the situation led to the establishment of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) by the goverment of the day. EFCC is working with other international crime prevetion bodies to help stem this economic malice.
Joe Buccheri has summed it up in his shared joke about 'the loving child of Budda' And Joe thanks for letting us know that it does not all come from Nigeria. I alway say, if you want to earn your living honestly, you can never be scammed or swindled, it is only when you are looking to reap where you did not sow that you'll be diddled!
Love from Nigeria
Sam
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