By Mary Eno-Mfon
Beware. Be warned. Scam artistes, aka
419, are on the prowl looking for whom to dupe, this Christmas seasons.
Here is a common approach used by scam
artistes to swindle unsuspecting victims: they hacked into people’s facebook
account, and then used the hacked account to solicit for financial assistance
from people who are ‘friends’ to the compromised facebook account.
Take the case of The Punch correspondent in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Mr.
Chukwudi Akasike. Two months ago, Akasike’s facebook account was hacked into by
unknown person(s) who used the account to rush out messages asking people to
help with recharge cards to assist him make some urgent calls.
“I knew it! The chap posing as you claimed
he was at a meeting and needed airtime. As soon as I wrote back to tell him to
try his scam elsewhere he never wrote back,” wrote John Alechenu who works in The Punch newspapers with Akasike. Mr.
Alechenu was responding to Chukwudi Akasike’s alert on facebook that his
friends should “disregard any message soliciting for GSM
credit”. “The person behind such message
is a criminal who hacked into my facebook this morning,” Akasike wrote.
But before Akasike could regain control of his facebook
account and sent out the alert, one journalist friend of his on facebook, Mr.
Charles Effiong had already been swindled, though he never mentioned the value
of the recharge card he sent to the scam artiste.
Effiong wrote tersely on Akasike’s facebook page: “The
guy got me sha. No wahala”
How Not To Fall A
Victim Of 419 On Facebook
Scam artistes are human beings like you and I, and are
also under pressure to ‘tidy up’ some fresh ‘deals’ that could put more money
in their pockets this Christmas season.
Be suspicious of messages making generous offers to you.
If a facebook ‘friend’ sends you an ‘urgent’ message asking you for financial
help, be smart enough to ask him some questions that will expose if the person
using the facebook account is truly the real owner or not.
Few
days ago, I got an ‘urgent’ request for financial help from an account
belonging to a friend, Victor Udoetteh. The guy who sent the message said he
was stranded in Enugu, with his wife and children, and that he needed some
money to pay his way back to Uyo. I knew it was 419, so I set up a few
questions for whoever it was.
“If you are really Victor, you'll know me very well then.
Please can you tell me where you and I met and really built our friendship? Is it
in the church? Friends of Godswill Akpabio
Organisation? Lions Club?
He
waited for some minutes, and then replied, ‘Friends of Godswill Akpabio
Organisation’. Wrong answer. Victor and I met and got to know ourselves very
well in secondary school, St. Mary’s Science College, Ediene Abak. The scam
artiste wasn’t smart enough, you see!
Now, because of the knowledge you’ve gained from reading
this article you are one step wiser than the prowling 419. Please you could do
well also to share this article with your friends.
Thanks for this scam alert. A friend shared with me, and I decided to check out this page. Thanks for promoting AK. Will visit more often. Well done.
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