Scams are not alien in Nigeria, every day we hear victims narrate their ordeal in the hands of scammers some of who can be relative or friend. You can’t judge victims of these scams because these scammers are also good at building trust and disguising, it will take some with anti-scam insight for you to know whether you are being scammed or about to be scammed.

The EFCC (Economic and Financial Crime Commission) is Nigeria’s financial crime police but some factors are affecting their effectiveness, some of which is limited personnel, inability to trace cash transaction amongst others. You must be equipped with the requisite knowledge to identify a scam.

5 WAYS TO RECOGNIZE A SCAM

In this article, we are sharing with you 5 ways to recognize a scam and how to respond.

1. QUICK DECISION

 Scammers don’t like giving their victims time to analyse and evaluate their propositions, they want you to make an almost instant decision. They know their victims can have a change of mind if he or she tries to compare their options with others.

When you see someone insisting you make an instant financial decision on a project or business opportunity apply caution here and take your time to make your options, get your lawyers to evaluate relevant document before not taking time committing more of your money.

2. UNSECURED WEB LINK

Phishing and online scam is now common in Nigeria, especially during the post-Covid-19 lockdown.

It was reported that more internet data was purchase by users because most had more time on their phone due to the lockdown.

Scammers use this fake website to obtain vital bank information of online visitors and then hack into bank accounts.

To recognize a possible scam website, check the website link or address to see whether it’s secured. If it is secured you should have ‘https:’ not ‘http:’ before the address. Another way to detect a fraud website is by using updated anti-virus software on your PC or phone this antivirus detects and blocks reported scam links.

Scammers also deliberately misspell website links; for instance, you can have the original weblink to be www.sheriffdeputiesltd.com and scammers deliberately designs a website with the domain address that looks like this: www.sheriffdeputiesitd.com. Can you spot the difference? The letter ‘l’ in the first link has been replaced with the letter ‘I’. Amazingly the two websites would look alike.

3. UNSOLICITED CONTACT MADE VIA EMAIL, TEXT OR CALL

Scammers place deliberate phone calls to people, pretending to be a staff of commercial banks, they illegally obtain basic information like name, gender and bank name of victims.

People with little or no knowledge about these kinds of scam easily fall victim, these scammers create fear in the minds of the victims and persuade them to send authentication links to their account and in turn illegally withdraw from their bank account.

You should raise a red flag should you receive a call from someone posing as bank staff to obtain verification password from you. Your bank will never call you for your ATM card details.

Should you receive such calls and you seem concerned of what would happen to your account if you refuse to respond, simply walk into your nearest bank branch and make the complaint, you will be surprised that the revelation you will receive when you get to the bank. Be guided.

4. TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE STORIES

Greed is one of the reasons why people fall victims to scam plots. The urge to live beyond their means make a lot of people to want to take advantage of opportunities to make much wealth without much effort.

Scammers share investment opportunities that look too good to be true, they share schemes that allow participants to make up to 50% returns of investment within a few hours or days.

Scammers also share business opportunity where you can get up 90% of your investment. For example; you can get someone to offer to sell 50kg bags of rice for N7,000 each knowing fully well that a 50kg bag of rice cost N20,000, that’s a massive N13,000 profit on a 50kg bag! It’s tempting, right? That is just an example of the false stories scammers tell.

In this case, a simple google search on the business opportunity that is being shared can be helpful.

With an online search, you can read reviews giving by people who have been scammed through such fraudulent schemes.

5. SECRECY

Scammers make you believe that letting others know about their business will make you lose some important things of life just to create fear. They strongly advise their victims of the dangers of disclosing details of their conversation with the police or any close relative.

No legitimate business partner will tell you not to give details of your transaction to the police or your lawyer, it’s safer to let your lawyer know about all your business dealings, they will help you vet every process of your business dealing and advice accordingly.

In summary, scam should not be encouraged, it’s a dent to our countries image, we all need to take caution and not jump on every opportunities to make wealth without careful consideration of the facts.

Our duty at Sheriff Deputies is to bring you to up to date with security intelligence for your everyday needs.

Mentioned here are just 5 major anti-scam tips. We do hope you are now better informed on the signs to look out for to identify scammers.

On the part of the government and judiciary, arrested scammers must be promoted trialled and judged accordingly to serve a deterrent to others.

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