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Enengedi skillfully takes on the scourge of internet
Arrested yahoo boys
* To protect the identities of the persons who spoke
to me in confidence, I shall only refer to them using
the names of the biblical disciples of Jesus Christ.
The scourge of internet scam seems to have taken
over the minds of so many Nigerian youths today, so
much that they have come to see the criminal act as
the only other way to make it big. From Lagos to
Enugu, Ibadan to Abuja, Calabar to Benin, the officials
of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
and men of the Nigerian Police Force have continued
to make arrests almost on a daily basis, but the
number of young people still plying the fraudulent
trade keeps increasing.
It is to this end that I undertook a sojourn to find out
what motivates these so-called ‘yahoo boys’ to go
into crime. I was hoping to understand the thoughts
that go through their minds when they ‘steal’ from
innocent people. I also needed to know if they ever
get to feel some form of guilt afterwards. There were
just so many questions I needed to answers to.
In August of 2019, following a 13-month long
investigation, the FBI had arrested a Nigerian named
Obinwanne Okeke in an $11 million BEC fraud case.
Weeks later, 77 Nigerian nationals were charged with
participating in a massive conspiracy to steal
millions of dollars through a variety of fraud schemes
and launder the funds through a Los Angeles-based
money laundering network. These recent incidents
had sparked my curiosity to understand why young
agile youths will knowingly choose a criminal path.
My neighborhood, Isolo-Okota in Lagos is believed to
be widely dominated by these yahoo boys. It is said
the area is one of the first places in Lagos where
internet fraud was being perpetrated. Many of the
boys have elevated from the little dating scams of
which they make a few tens and hundreds of
thousands to ‘business email compromise’ where
they make millions from.
Getting in contact with these guys was no difficult
task since they all live among us, but the difficult
part was getting them to admit what they are and to
open up about why and how they do what they do.
As I approached the residence of my respondents, I
could observe that the residence is a duplex, maybe
with about four to five rooms. Knocked on the gate
and the gateman asked who I was looking for and I
said, “My name is Victor and I’m here to see
Matthew.” He took about two minutes to go confirm
my invitation and returned, ushering me to the main
entrance of the house.
The door was opened by a tall skinny guy spotting
short tinted dreadlocks and rocking sagging skinny
jeans and a white singlet. My main acquaintance
could see me from the door and he quickly
approached me, welcoming me inside. “Guys, this
the journalist guy I told you about,” Matthew said to
the seven guys who were all sitting in the sitting and
dining rooms, and all staring at their laptops.
After all the introduction and exchange of
pleasantries, I quickly jumped into my first question,
“Why Yahoo?”
“Because of money nah,” John who was seated close
to the TV set answered with a smile on his face.
Still trying to understand John’s point of view,
Thomas who was just returning from the kitchen with
a plate of rice added, “My brother if hunger knack you
inside this economy wey job no dey and you get
family responsibility, nobody go to tell you to find a
way”
"Even if you finally find a job, as a graduate, you are
most likely started with N80K. My brother that
amount cannot solve the family problems I have. I
don’t have a father, my mom was selling a petty
trade and I have four younger siblings who need to
stay in school. How does N80k take care of that,”
Peter who seemed like the eldest person in the room
asked.
One thing was clear, money was the key motivation
here. These guys want to live above their means.
They not only want to be able to meet their individual
needs but also want to live the lavish lifestyle.
What do their families think of their criminal act? Do
they even know or care that they are into fraud?
Some of them have found a way to lie about what
they exactly do. And for those that have been open
with their parents, they (the parents) have reluctantly
come to accept the reality.
“My parents are church people. There’s no way they
will understand what I do, so I tell them I buy and sell
stuff,” Matthew said.
“My father asked me why I’m always carrying a
laptop. I had to lie to him that I’m into foreign
exchange and that that was how I made money,” said
a light-skinned bare-chested James. “I don’t know if
he believes me though, but we have never had to
discuss the matter again”
In the past, internet scams associated with “Yahoo
Boys” were dominated by romance scams through
dating sites as well as phony email business
propositions from infamous “Nigerian princes,” but
their current tactics appears to have changed. At this
point, I had become more curious wanting to know
how the scams work. So I asked, “How do you guys
go about it?”
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Thomas who seemed to think my question was funny
said, “there are different jobs (scam formats). Some
do dating, some indulge in stealing credit cards, some
people do 'classified' and some engage in business
email compromise.”
“It all depends on the one you are interested in and
the type of money you are hoping to make,” James
explained. “The big money though is in business
email compromise where we hack email accounts to
convince businesses to make payments to fake bank
accounts that the companies would have believed
belong to their clients."
“Dating is not bad too. Sometimes it’s legit and
sometimes it’s not,” Andrew who was smoking a
cigarette at the balcony said as he tries to highlight
the advantages of online romance scam. “I’ve been
dating this American lady for 5 years now. She has
been to Nigeria once and I’ve also travelled to see her
in Georgia too. Now I’m making plans to permanently
relocate”
By this time, I found myself more relaxed because, to
be sincere, I wasn’t expecting this much honesty and
openness. On my way there, I doubted anyone but
Matthew who is an acquaintance would give me
audience, but as it turned out, for some reason, they
were at ease me asking these questions.
Now I was confident enough to bring out my notepad
so I can go on with my next line of questions and
anticipating more revelations…
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(Part 2 coming soon)
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