another, received phoney messages from strange but attractive looking
ladies on the .social networking site.
While some people have been able to separate the scam mails from the
genuine ones, others have not been smart enough to know the
difference. The latter easily fall prey to the tactics of faceless con
men who hide beneath false identities to defraud them.
Pretending to be young ladies aged between 18 and 26 years, the
criminals often target men that are naturally drawn to pretty women.
Investigation shows that they always use freshly opened Facebook
accounts - the types that display one or two sensual pictures of a
woman and very few 'friends' - to bait their victims.
Having successfully 'wooed' their unsuspecting victim, they tactically
send short messages that begin with phrases, such as, 'How are you?'
and 'Can I be your friend?'
As soon as they receive a response, they move on to the next stage,
flirting with the victim before going on to squeeze as much money as
they can get from him.
It is not difficult to spot these fake 'girls' on Facebook by simply
observing certain similarities in their personal data. For instance,
their names are as unreal as their pictures look.
Imagine receiving a messages from a certain Franklin Ariel Cortez
Garcia who begins his love note by writing, "Hello, my name is
Precious. Please reply me so I can send my pictures to you through my
email address, mypreciousbabygal@ yahoo.com."
Another letter may read, "Hello, I just went through your profile and
I like what I see. I want to know you better please reply through my
email so we can know each other better. Waiting to see your mail."
Although Facebook tries to eliminate such fraudulent messages by
marking them as spam shortly after they have reached their victims,
some hapless persons may fall prey before such cleansing takes place.
It is important to note that beyond the tricks, the simple explanation
is that they are '419' men luring people into parting with their
hard-earned cash by operating fake Facebook accounts.
While the trend isn't peculiar to Nigeria, a US-based Facebook group
called Stop Nigerian 419 scams (Stomp out Scams)has been created to
help everyone "become aware of, recognize and avoid falling victim to
all types of Nigerian style scams, including romance, advance payment
and foreign lottery scams."
The good news is that Nigerians can avoid falling victim to these con
men by taking certain precautionary measures, such as activating the
privacy setting on their Facebook accounts and treating subsequent
requests for friendship, especially from persons they hardly know,
with suspicion.
The subject has been trending on social media with some victims of the
scams recounting their experiences. Lamenting the ugly trend,
@LODAFRIQ wrote, "I receive an average of two scam messages of this
type daily on Facebook. #fraudsters #yahooyahoo #ole #419 .
A certain Lorliam Shija says, "Lilia Princess Edson, Rosemary Ndadaye
,Angela Mpka..are the three 419 people that sent me seductive messages
last week." Also, Ben Ezemalu wrote, "All these 'girls' sending me
Facebook messages with e-mail addresses think I have never see a
pretty girl!"
Then @imuss added a note of warning, "Only 10 per cent of boys are
talking with girls on Facebook. The remaining 90 per cent are talking
with fake accounts".
PUNCH.
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