CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
Internet Fraud in Nigeria Internet fraud is a global phenomenon that represents widespread
threats in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America; threats that may be injurious to national security
and financial health (Okeshola & Adeta, 2013; Akogwu, 2012). Internet fraud, also referred to as
computer fraud, is arguably one of the most prevalent forms of cybercrime according to Tade
and Aliyu (2011). In most Nigerian tertiary institutions, different kinds of criminal acts such as
sexual and physical assault, malpractices, cultism, falsification of admission, and stealing are
irregularly perpetrated. But in recent times, cybercrime is the major form that exists in our
tertiary institutions as Internet fraud continues to expand its frontiers with many Nigerian
undergraduates embracing it as a way of life (Tade et al, 2011). The prevalence and increased
involvement of Nigerian youth in cybercrime has remained a concern for the national
government and relevant agencies due to adverse effects such as a negative international image
for Nigeria and Nigerians. This is even as the country continues to be regarded as the breeding
ground for con artists and fraudsters (Muraina et al, 2015). According to a global network cyber
security vendor, Check Point, in 2016, Nigeria was ranked 16th in cyber-attacks vulnerabilities
in Africa (Ewepu, 2016). The perception of Nigerians as fraudsters globally is informed partly by
the high number of Nigerians implicated and/or indicted in such criminal acts compared to other
nationalities. This is a fact that is often readily pointed out in the media (Omodunbi et al 2016).
According to Olaide et al (2004), the majority of cybercriminals in Nigeria are youths. The
identified benefits of Internet technology are the main motivating factor for mass participation of
youths in virtual spaces globally, even for the wrong reasons (Jegede et al 2016). In explaining
the seeming affinity between youths and cybercrimes, Jegede et-al. (2016) posited that it is
important to identify the causal factors in the nature of the society. The state of the society has a
way of influencing or presenting challenges to the survival of the society and occupants. These
include cultural, socioeconomic and psycho-physical components of such society. According to
Jegede et al. (2016) in order to understand the youth-cybercrime situation in Nigeria, the role of
the state in the prevalence of cyber fraud cannot be ignored. Citing a Nigerian Institute of Social
and Economic Research (NISER) review (2001), Jegede at al. (2016) pointed to the failure of the
Nigerian state to fully cater to the economic and social wellbeing of its citizens by failing to
implement laudable policies, a malaise that has several socioeconomic problems. This position is
supported by the findings of Makinde (2005) who found that a majority of young Nigerians find
it difficult to survive.
Classification of cyber crimes
It is very difficult to classify cyber-crimes in general into distinct groups. Cyber-crime can take
many shapes and can occur anytime or at any place. Cyber criminals utilize several methods,
depending on their skill-set and their goal. Regardless of the nature of the intentions, each
method of cyber-crime requires a set of skills, knowledge, resources, and access to particular
data or information systems. One classification that is helpful to this study is that by Wall (2014,
pp.3-7 and Regner, et al, 2016). He sub-divides cyber-crime into four established legal
categories:
1. Cyber-trespass: crossing boundaries into other people’s property and/or causing
damage, e.g. hacking, defacement, viruses.
2. Cyber-deceptions and thefts: stealing (money, property), e.g. credit card fraud,
intellectual property violations also referred to as piracy.
3. Cyber-pornography: breaching laws on obscenity and decency.
4. Cyber-violence: doing psychological harm to, or inciting physical harm against others,
thereby breaching laws relating to the protection of the person, e.g. hate speech, stalking.
It sub-divides cyber-crime according to the object or target of the offence: the first two
categories comprise “crimes against property”, the third covers “crimes against morality”, and
the fourth relates to “crimes against the person”. To these we may also wish to add “crimes
against the state”, those activities that breach laws protecting the integrity of the nation and its
infrastructure (e.g. terrorism, espionage and disclosure of official secrets). Such a classification is
helpful, as it allows us to relate cyber-crime to exist conceptions of prohibited and harmful acts
(Majid, 2016).
METHOD USED MY INTERNET FRAUDSTERS TO DUPE THEIR VICTIMS
Romance scam
A romance scam is a confidence trick involving proposing romantic advances towards a victim,
gaining the victim's affection, and the using that good will to get the victim to send money to the
scammer under false pretense having life challenging issues , asking the victim to borrow or gift
him/her money or other goodies that he or she pay back later but will cut ties with the victim
after the money has been sent. The Fraudulent acts committed may also involve accessing the
victim's money, bank accounts, credit cards, passports, e-mail accounts, or national identification
numbers; or forcing the victims to commit financial fraud on their behalf. These scams are often
perpetrated by organized criminal gangs, who work together to take money from multiple
victims at a time
Business email/computer scam
Business email compromise(BEC) is a type of cybercrime where the scammer uses Email to trick
someone into sending money or divulging confidential company information. The Culprit poses
as a trusted figure, then asks for a fake bill to be paid or for sensitive data they can use in another
scam. BEC scams are on the rise due to increased remote work. There were nearly 20,000 BEC
complaints to the FBI last year.
Investment scam
Investment fraud happens when people try to trick you into investing money. They might
Want you to invest money in stocks, bonds, notes, commodities, currency, or even real
estate. A scammer may lie to you or give you fake information about a real investment. They
may also make up a fake investment opportunity.
Lottery scam
Lottery, sweeps take or prized raw fraud happens after fraudsters contact you to tell you you’ve
won a large sum of money in an international lottery, sweeps take or other prize draw. You ’re
told via email or letter that you have won a large amount of money on an overseas online lottery.
Spanish, Canadian and Australian lotteries re among the most common. So that you can process
the payment of your winnings, they ask you to contact someone who claims to be an official at
the lottery company. You are warned to keep your good luck a secret and ,if you don’t respond
quickly, you won’t be able to claim your winnings. However, either the lottery doesn’t exist or
you’ve been contacted by fraudsters misusing the name of a genuine lottery. But you can be sure
there is no prize money for you to win. If you respond to the fraudster, you’ll be asked to supply
personal information and copies of official documents, such as your passport, as proof of
identity. The fraudsters can then use this information to steal your identity. Once you have
provided your personal information, the fraudsters will ask you to pay various fees for example:
taxes, legal fees, banking fees etc. so that they can release your non-existent winnings. Each time
you make a payment, the fraudsters will come up with a reason why your winnings can ’t be paid
out unless you make another payment. They’ll also give you reasons why the fees can’t be taken
out of your winnings and have to be paid up front. The fraudsters may also ask for your bank
details, saying they will pay your winnings directly into your bank account. But if you hand over
your bank details, the fraudsters will use them to empty your bank account.
CAUSES OF YAHOO YAHOO IN NIGERIA
The "Yahoo Yahoo" challenge can be traced to various nexus of causes. The following are some
of the causes of cybercrime in Nigeria:
Peer Pressure
Peer pressure is influence from members of one's peer group or circle. When a typical young
man sees his secondary school or university best friend stunting with designer shoes on social
media, they are pressured to get rich no matter the means. Several youths want to be like their
mates. There have also been establishment of recruitment centers for Yahoo Yahoo known as
"HK", which is a house with an experience yahoo boy who tutors new recruits in the fraudulent
act. A young person who happens to live in such apartments will be pressured to get involved in
the illicit act.
Greed
The Yoruba people will call it “Ojukokoro.” It is that intense and selfish desire for something, in
this case, wealth. Several young people simply want the whole world to themselves without
proportional effort put in. For many, the fastest way to this is internet fraud, which even in reality
is not as easy as it seems.
Disappearance of cherished family and societal values
Values such as honesty, diligence and trust are already eroded in the known smallest and
fundamental social unit called family, thereby, festering and impacting on the larger society.
These youths live dishonest life, see no importance in being diligent and are not trustworthy.
There is craving to trade right societal values for wealth. There is the discouragement of building
a career, legitimate business, or hard work. Sadly, parents of these so called yahoo guys see
nothing bad in what their children are doing and they even support them with prayers and other
diabolical means. Unfortunately, quite a number of these guys have ended-up using their parents,
siblings, girlfriends and even themselves consciously and unconsciously for rituals to further
enhance the potency of their supposed good-luck charms to ensure sustained grip on their
gullible clients (Kolawole, 2020).
Increasing Indolent Youths
The prominence which internet fraud has gained has regrettably turned sizable number of youths
in their productive age into half-baked, unnecessarily lazy and dependent population. Painfully,
some of these youths who had one job or productive skill are losing focus on them and deviating
ingloriously into this pervasive trend called yahoo yahoo. It is not uncommon these days to see
them in groups loitering and chattering away indolently productive time with most of them busy
online poaching or scouting for preys to swindle. These guys, when asked what they do for
living, say boastfully that they are yahoo guys (Faturoti, 2022)
Extravagance Life-style
According to Faturoti (2022), one obvious feature of a yahoo boy is lavish living. They go for
expensive items with little or no maintenance knowledge. They ride expensive cars more than
their productive efforts can acquire and even drive recklessly, endangering their lives and that of
others. Countless incidences in this regard exist which have cost many people their precious
lives.
Drugs/Alcohol and Reckless Sexual Life
Proceeds of internet fraud are heavily spent on harmful drugs, hard alcoholic spirits, clubbing
and ladies of easy virtues. Hard and expensive drugs are brazenly abused leading to addiction
and mental derangement. Alcohols, champagnes, and wines that cost heavily are used and often
wasted in the name of celebrations and oppressive tendencies to fellow hustlers and other
members of the society to announce their hit or what they call "cash-out!" (Faturoti, 2022).
Depression
This is a feeling of severe despondency and dejection often caused by unfortunate circumstances
that negatively affect how you feel, the way you think and how you act. It might be subsequent
to oppression, which may make a young man thinking deeply about his life, then resort to Yahoo
Yahoo internet fraud.
Acute poverty
This is a very serious shortage of purchasing power or of access to resources that provide the
basic necessities of life, such as food and shelter. In cases like this, coupled with some other
factors, some are left with no other alternative but to go into the illegal act of cybercrime.
Unemployment and Unfavourable Economy
The rate of unemployment in Nigeria is very high. In 2022, the unemployment rate in Nigeria is
estimated to reach 33 percent. This figure was projected to at 32.5 percent in the preceding year.
Chronological data show that the unemployment rate in Nigeria rose constantly in the past years.
This has been given as one of the major reasons for surge of cybercrime in Nigeria. However, it
is the belief of the researcher, the above reasons not withstanding, none of the highlighted
reasons is a justification for yahoo yahoo. This is because there are many people who are in the
same society, and are making legitimate wealth without involving in fraudulent acts.
GENERAL IMPACT OF YAHOO YAHOO IN NIGERIA
Cybercrimes affect the community in many ways. The following are some of the impact of
cybercrimes
Loss of online business and consumer confidence in the digital economy.
The potential for critical infrastructure to be compromised affecting water supply, health
services, national communications, energy distribution, financial services, and transport
(Wall, 2014).
Loss of personal financial resources and the subsequent emotional damage.
Loss of business assets.
Costs to government agencies and businesses in re-establishing credit histories, accounts
and identities. • Costs to businesses in improving cyber security measures. • Stimulating
other criminal activity. • Costs in time and resources for law enforcement agencies.
Death of victims.
Loss of societal value.
CHAPTER TWO
THE ACRONYM HK
HK means headquarters in Yahoo boy code. It refers to a place or structure where the fraudsters
converge to carry out their criminal activities. The acronyms Of HK is also referred Hustling
Kingdom, this HK is a place where group of boys know as yahoo boys are been trained on how
yahoo yahoo is been done. It is like a school where internet fraud is being learnt. In this place the
apprentice are been thought on different method or format to defraud people through the use of
internet.(Ndidi, 2018 )
Yahoo format is an online ebook that is well written by some yahoo boys in other to sell It to
other yahoo boys and the content of this book is method on how to use fake profile and fake
material in defrauding your client. (Tude, 2022)
One might wonder how all these procedures are passed down or shared. Those in the yahoo
business and have been successful open a learning center of sort called the “HK” meaning
Hustling Kingdom, which seems like a regular household from the outside. It doesn’t cost a dime
to join a HK, but each HK comes with its own rules with the head called chairman and his
second in command called the general or senior boy and then the members of the HK have
shared chores. How these HKs are funded is through the chairman who is already successful and
gets at least 50%-70% of every successful cash-out from his subordinates.
These criminal activities that started with a few people have now exploded into a widespread
virus, youths are blinded with the desire to make fast money without going through the
conventional process. The evil effect of yahoo can be seen even in secondary schools, it is like a
disease that spreads fast with the wind except in this case the internet and social media help drive
the virus. For young minds, seeing 18 year olds owning cars worth millions tends to corrupt the
minds and peer pressure takes over from there. Some see internet fraud as a pathway to success
in life, some hide under the guise of taking back the wealth of their ancestors from the white
man, while some are pushed into it by extreme poverty. But all these are not genuine excuses to
warrant involvement in any form of financial crime. These wild spared of internet fraud starts are
due to the opening HKs in many places in our communities which makes easily accessible to
learnt my young people.
CURRENT STATE OF HKS IN NIGERIA
In recent times and with the coming of the Internet system, Nigerian youths especially, the
undergraduates, have taken to the illicit trade called Internet scam. Investigations reveal that this
development is responsible for drastic reduction in cultism in the higher institutions, as it has
been over shadowed by wide spread cyber fraud, popularly dubbed Yahoo boys, to perpetrate the
crime, these youths often use yahoo free E-mail account. The fraudulent business became
prevalent in Nigeria in 2000 with the Accessibility of the Internet. Youths who engage in the
frauds cam became rich overnight, without their parents’ knowledge .
These can be attributed to the observed increase in the number HK houses in Nigeria, most flats
in urban and rural areas are used for this schemes. Mostly people involved cybercrime prefers
rural areas where they will away from the eye armed forces such as police or soldiers. Most
undergraduate hostel are also used as HKs as an undercover to make think that are just students.
Many youth recruited in to HKs houses on daily bases, this done by the yahoo boys flaunting
luxurious life styles on the internet and thereby attracting other people.
THE ROLE OF HK IN INTERNET FRAUDING IN YOUTH CRIMINALITY IN
NIGERIA.
1. Increase in the number of youths involved in internet frauds in Nigeria: There has
been an observable increase in the number of youth that are involved in internet fraud.
This the due the increase in the number HKs , which is place one can go a learn the
processes involved internet fraud. Youth are drawn to internet fraud because of the
luxurious life being flaunted by the people that are into it which make easy to recruit
young ones.
2. It increases the number successful internet fraud committed in Nigeria: According to
EFFCC, there has been an exponential increase in the number fraud victim’s cases in the
country. This is attributed to existence of HK, who internet fraudsters act as organized
criminal organization in which that share information and resource on how they can
successfully defraud their victims.
3. Acting as a facilitator to increase number of ritual killings in Nigeria: Hardly a day
passes without this new dimension of yahoo plus activities making a headline in the
Nigeria National Dailies. For instance, some of the headlines are: Yahoo Ritualist Caught
With 12 Soaked Sanitary Pads, Female Underwear; Fear of Ritualists In Delta: We
Anoint Our Pants To Escape Yahoo Boys said Warri Girls; Reactions Trails Delta Killing
by Ritualists- Yahoo Yahoo Boys; Yahoo Boys Caught With Girls Pants and other Ritual
Items in Delta State; Yahoo Boy That Has Been Stealing Used Female Pants and
Brassiers has been Caught; Girls Run Mad, become Useless after We Use Them For
Yahoo Plus-Yahoo Boys Confessed; Commotion in Delta as Girls Allegedly Vomits
N500-Yahoo Plus; Stop Stealing Women Pants, Oba of Benin Warns Yahoo Boys; Fear
of ‘Yahoo Boys’ Ritualists Forced Female Students In Delta State Tertiary Institutions to
stop wearing pants; and so on, (Okogba, 2018; Amaize, 2018; Lawal, 2018; Ewubare,
2018; Egobiambu, 2018; Young, 2017). Hk act as breeding ground for this idea of ritual
in other to infucence the victims to do what they require without asking questions. These
idea starts who one of HK member do ritual and succeeds in defrauding his victims, the
other member will as ask how he did it , he will tell and the cycle continues
4. It increase peer pressure among youth to make money by all means: Peer pressure is
influence from members of one's peer group or circle. When a typical young man sees his
secondary school or university best friend stunting with designer shoes on social media,
they are pressured to get rich no matter the means. Several youths want to be like their
mates. There have also been establishment of recruitment centers for Yahoo Yahoo
known as "HK", which is a house with an experience yahoo boy who tutors new recruits
in the fraudulent act. A young person who happens to live in such apartments will be
pressured to get involved in the illicit act.
5. It is breeding ground for the increase drug use and abuse among youths in Nigeria :
Hard drugs are used by most yahoo boys to keep them awake and to subdue their
conciseness while defrauding people. Proceeds of internet fraud are heavily spent on
harmful drugs, hard alcoholic spirits, clubbing and ladies of easy virtues. Hard and
expensive drugs are brazenly abused leading to addiction and mental derangement.
Alcohols, champagnes, and wines that cost heavily are used and often wasted in the name
of celebrations and oppressive tendencies to fellow hustlers and other members of the
society to announce their hit or what they call "cash-out!" (Faturoti, 2022).
6. It increase the number of youths living with sexual transmitted diseases and other
blood transmitted diseases: In most case these yahoo boys living in HKs shares
women and take turns having sex with them, if one them any disease it will be
transmitted to all of them. And also they injection needle while injecting their hard drugs.
CHAPTER THREE
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Conclusion
Cybercrime is on the increase in Nigeria. No doubt, the practice of yahoo yahoo is gaining
popularity by each day. This is simply because the practice has now been more modernized by
the actors in terms of approach, materials used, and the volume of money they control within a
short period and this is made possible by the increased number of HKs in our various
communities. The families of those involved and even a large percentage of society do not see
anything bad in the act despite knowing the implications or consequences that characterized the
practice. Social values are dwindling, as a result of poverty which has eaten deep into the life of
many households, they crave for social value is exchanged for illegal and irrational forms of
making blood money. A few participants indicated future interests in cybercrime if their
economic conditions remain unchanged or worsen. A holistic approach grounded in religious and
ethical reengineering would be more effective in re-orientating and empowering the youths to
positively utilizes their internet skills. Thus, curbing cybercrimes would require a process that
would not rely exclusively on legal and policing frameworks. From ethical and religious
perspectives, the act is not morally justifiable. There is need to increase societal, religious, and
family values, dignity of labour and contentment as a way forward.
Recommendations
The government armed force should be committed in closing down Hk houses and
punishing the offenders
Generally, parents and members of the community should endeavor to teach and uphold
morals, values and ethics. Also, there should be strict adherence to the faith believed in and
practice in order to instill fear in to them;
The strength and passion of the citizenry especially the youth should be harnessed into
visionary and profitable enterprises such as skills acquisition, youth empowerment and
agricultural scheme etc
Parents should proactively engage their children by making youth see the importance of
hardwork, diligence, honesty and modesty
Government at all tiers should provide for the citizens in order to alleviate poverty in Nigeria.
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