Janet Go here examines the menace of romance scams and sexual extortion of both local and foreign nationals by some Nigerians who are into cybercrime Disbelief, shock and fear would hardly describe the feelings of a lady, identified as Doris Foluke not real names to protect her identity when a friend notified online of a picture message sent to her inbox.
As the details of the message were shown to her, Foluke realised that a guy she met on Tina_042 leaked had carried out his threat. She alleged that the guy had threatened to spread the videos and pictures of her nudes and dating money must exchange hands to prevent the spread. So why should I pay him?
However, that friend was not the only person to whom the picture was sent; she said other friends who got the pictures began reaching out to her. She told scams correspondent that she refused to succumb to his threats, and that she made sure to live her life devoid of trauma, until he eventually left her alone. Arguably, Foluke is only one of the few Nigerian women who were victims of sextortion and romance scams. Findings revealed that such perpetrators sometimes target foreigners online victims of their criminal trade.
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What sextortion, romance scam is The Federal Bureau of Investigation described sextortion as a criminal act that involved threats to distribute private and sensitive materials of the victims unless the demand of the perpetrator is complied with.
The demands which are often laced with threats could be money or sexual favours, among others. It stated that fromthere had been an increase in reports of cases targeting children between the ages of 15 and 17 years and adults aged between 18 and 30 years.
Sextortion scams are usually run by sophisticated criminal gangs and their targets are sometimes foreigners. A consumer cyber safety company, Norton, defined a romance scam as an online dating scams where a cybercriminal uses a fake identity to gain the trust of their victim and trick them into believing that they are in a romantic relationship.
After gaining the trust of their supposed lover, the cybercriminal then begins to request or blackmail them for money. Data, losses Sextortion and romance scams, reports have shown, predated the exploration of the internet and social media. A report by a legal director, Legal Policy and Research Unit, International Nigerian Association, Sara Carnegie, and published by the association, referred to sextortion as both a form of corruption and sexual exploitation. The report discovered that in war or disaster-prone communities and for asylum seekers, some so-called aiders requested sexual favours in return for food, medicine and shelter.
An analysis of the FTC data from to revealed a steady increase in the amount of money lost and the number of cases reported. ProPrivacy further noted that about 60 per cent of all online dating profiles were nigerian fake or inactive, stating that most of the scams happened on social media and online forums. The FTC stated that the scammers mostly lied to their victims about their inability to come for a physical meeting or being on a faraway military base or being an offshore oil rig worker.
Another lie is those who claim to scams successful cryptocurrency investors and are willing to nigerian the victim how it is dating. On the website nigerian the American Association of Retired Persons, a social psychologist, Justin Lehmiller, attributed the desperation for an emotional or intimate connection as the reason the victims accept and hold on to such relationships despite what often appear as unreasonable demands.
For Nigeria, it projected a 1. This data reflects the increase in online dating sites and apps in the country. Undoubtedly, this has created more room for an increase in online dating scams and extortion.
Foreign victims On May 11, a court in Singapore sentenced a Singaporean who fell in love with a member of a Nigerian criminal group nigerian dating sites for weeks in prison for using her bank account to receive and transfer monies from several scam victims in Singapore.
The Nigerian lover was noted to have fallen in love and impregnated another Singaporean woman earlier in the year. Recently, the Nigeria Police Force National Cybercrime Center arrested two dating over a romance scam, criminal conspiracy and identity theft in Abuja.
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The duo, Scams Okoye and Ifeanyi Nwosu, were accused of criminal conspiracy and identity theft. According to a statement issued by the Force Public Relations Officer, Okoye, identified as a former student at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, used Facebook as his main tool to engage in criminal activities. He said Okoye admitted he had been committing the crime sinceand that his phone contained evidence of the crime. The duo, who both claimed to be in the music industry, were together for a recording session at the time they were apprehended by the police.
This connection goes beyond casual friendship as evidence indicating a series of cash scams between Ifeanyi Nwosu and the elderly woman have come to light. The crime led to the death by suicide of one of the teenagers. Extortion, payback for slave dating Raising the hopes of their victims they mostly meet on dating sites and social media, through flowery promises of love, nigerian desire to spend forever with them and a blissful ever after, were the tactics romance scammers, sextortionists and cybercriminals, in general, use to bait their victims.
Nigerian Romance Scams: How to Recognize, Avoid and Recover
An acclaimed reformed romance scammer, who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity, confirmed that their target victims were usually foreigners. Payback for the slave trade and alleged exploitation of Nigerians by foreigners were some of the motives the reformed scammer gave for such actions.
He further noted that the state of the economy, greedy leaders and poverty were factors that lured youths into the crime. He noted that he was plunged into deep lack and poverty after the demise of his father during his first year at the Federal University of Owerri, Imo State.
He said he embraced the trade as a means of survival. He explained that the trade is often accompanied by days of hunger until a victim falls into the trick and then serves online a buffer against the dark online. He added that his changed behaviour and attempts at making amends with those he defrauded had led to a real relationship between himself and some of his victims. They deceived us by coming with mirrors and radios and we gave them humans in return as slaves.
So, the orientation is all about doing what we do to get back what has been taken from us. He admitted that some end up being paraded and prosecuted. Sadly, such crimes have continued to project the country and its citizens in bad light in the international space. I lost my father in my first year in the university and there was no support.
I worked in a factory from 7am to 7pm and I was paid N13, If I was to venture into a business and I needed to take a loan, the interest rate is too high. He enters the girls DMs, makes them comfortable talking to him and then scams to fall deathly ill. For me, he had heart surgery, and for Bolu he had spinal link. He is a liar and a thief.
The handle he used to talk to me has been deactivated. I reached out to his friends who knew him but none of them wanted anything to do with the situation at hand. Plenty of stories. Also mentioned needing money for one thing and I sent it. I was thinking about reaching out to him asking about his health yesterday. Opara was said to have met her lover via an online dating app and the love between them extended to intimate sessions. She then requested a sum online money with nigerian threat of exposing their intimate sessions dating the demands were not met.
Do not share sensitive data with individuals you meet online until you are certain of their trustworthiness. Cybersecurity experts noted that victims on social media platforms and dating sites, where people mostly fall victim, were lonely and in need of attention.
They noted that this need is then exploited by scammers who, after gaining their trust and confidence, begin to subtly demand for money and favours. A technology policy analyst, data protection and cybersecurity lawyer, Moses Faya, stated that the abuse of social media platforms, dating site applications and other tech tools by cybercriminals had led to an increase in crimes generally.
He stated that dating sites needed to put in place verification measures to ensure the authenticity dating the users and tools that would help users report suspected scammers. As such, two persons could be chatting and none of them would know whether the other was a male or female online a nigerian because the verification methods are not being done.
Most platforms https://telegram-web.online/dating-scan.php to increase their standards for people to use their platforms. One needs to be vigilant during dating and look out for red flags and inconsistencies.
Olives stressed that individuals who want to share sensitive images or videos should ensure that the privacy settings on their applications were set to their preferences to prevent sending them to the wrong platforms inadvertently. There are a lot of dating apps these days and new ones come in every day and one cannot be sure of the reputation of all of them. It is not bad to know the personal information of the person you want to share nudes with.
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It does not sound ridiculous to request where the person works and for them to show a means scams identification, just to be sure.
Once things go south, you can trace them to their roots and their workplace. So when people communicate with individuals they meet on dating sites and apps, they should learn online to verify their profiles and who they are. This, he said, would help to ensure control, adding that people thank nigerian sugar mummy dating site nice restrict applications that dating access, share or receive certain documents.
Refrain from exposing your body during video calls but if you must, ensure that your face is not showing. This is because, during a video call, the other party could be recording the screen. Also, trust gradually. Some people can pick the nudes of someone else from their phones without their knowledge. Reduce your limit to personal information.
Such persons can call and report to the authorities. But is there a law against sextortion? At the end of the day, I will say 70 to 80 per cent of people who are sexually extorted are unable to report the situation. The only way to move on is to stop the relationship when it becomes transactional. So, people should always be careful. Smart scammers need smart law enforcers — Don Meanwhile, a professor of law and applied jurisprudence, Faculty of Law, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Anambra State, Ikenga Oraegbunam, noted that victims of online dating scams faced the challenges of distance, anonymity of the perpetrators, the fluidity of the act which at times hindered investigation and prosecution as well as the knowledge of judges in dealing with issues of the internet.
Oraegbunam, a reverend father, noted however that victims, regardless nigerian their location, could still pursue justice by going through the Ministry of Nigerian or the equivalence in their countries if they have the wherewithal.
The issue of prosecution and investigation of cybercrime is not online because of the transnational nature of such acts. Act,criminalised online, stating dating the unclear definition https://telegram-web.online/web-scraping-craigslist.php cyberspace writing an online dating profile a problem in determining the geographical location where a crime originated from and was completed.
Oraegbunam stated that although sextortion and romance scams were not found as crimes in the Cybercrime Act, identity theft, cyber defamation, bullying and terrorism were crimes the threat actors could be charged with. For online, when someone in Nigeria has committed a crime against someone in another country, Nigeria may not have enough tools to prosecute and investigate it, there can be an option of extradition of the offender to the country where the crime has been committed and nigerian has been made possible scams the cybercrime act.
He added that data from the centre revealed that most victims of the crimes were foreigners, and that until recently, there were recorded cases dating victims from Nigeria. Uche further affirmed that the victims comprised of both scams and women, stating that the online of the perpetrators was to get money from the victim. The DCP noted that the perpetrators sometimes meet the victims on dating sites, while urging individuals who use such sites to be careful of the activities done on the sites.
Some of them upload pictures of young ladies as their profile picture, whereas guys are behind it. Once they gain the confidence of their victim by expressing and gaining love, scams begin to demand for money and present themselves as dating to the United States Army, naval officers or doctors or engineers in Ukraine or Afghanistan and need to scams money to their families.
The director further noted that most Nigerians were unaware of what to do when blackmailed or extorted online, adding that shame over the issue often prevented them from reporting at the police station.
To resolve this problem, the director stated that the NPF-NCC had created an e-reporting portal and official email where the victims could report the cases. The channel is working. All rights reserved.