According to a Twitter user, @Salttybarber, the easiest way to scam Nigerians is to claim to be in a financial predicament and ask for money lower than N5000.

The above statement is true, as scammers have not ceased to devise means of exploiting and defrauding unsuspecting Nigerians on social media despite the various awareness campaigns on how online scams are carried out.

FIJ found that scammers often wield the weapon of emotional appeal by hiding under the guise of dire helplessness and abject poverty.

Like the tactics used in emotional appeal advertising, online scammers concoct stories aimed at stirring the emotions of their target audience. Their only goal is to receive credit alert.

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FAKE ILLNESS STORY

Last Sunday, Nigerian tweeps shared how Baba Dudu, a notorious scammer, tricked them into parting with their hard-earned money. His real name is Hassan Idris Adedotun, and his now-deactivated Twitter page was @BlvckDotun.

How did Baba Dudu do it? He sent direct messages to several tweeps, claiming that he needed between N10,000 and N20,000 to get supplements and vitamin kits for his mom.

In one of the messages sent, he wrote, “I need you [sic] help, my boss. I actually want to get supplement for my mum. It’s N30,000 and I just have N15,000. I don’t know if you can lend me N10,000 or N5,000. I’d pay back. It’s really urgent, please.”

Yet, in another message with some slightly different changes, he wrote: “My mum actually has vitamin anemia, and we need around N80,000 to run up her supplements and vitamin kits. I have just N50,000 right now, and we need it because she’s seriously sick… I need like N10,000/N20,0000. It’s been crazy for me, please. Even if it’s a [loan], my mum is hurting.”

What makes this more interesting is the fact that Baba Dudu had been using the same format since September 9, 2022. He sent the same message to people again this year.

The can of worms would not have been opened if @_Hydonni had not posted how the same Baba Dudu failed to pay back her N2000 two days after she lent him the money.

After he was exposed, one of his benefactors said, “I had to give him the money. He’s a very disgusting person. His mum is always sick. Never helping anyone on this app again.”

READ ALSO: ALERT: Fake Customer Care Twitter Handle Is Asking for GTBank Customers’ Details

JOB OFFER AND HOUSE RENT STORY

A few days after the exposé, another tweep, whose handle is @UncleCCA, accused Oluwatoyosi Emmanuel Odebo (@Diest_) of scamming two of his friends.

Odebo told them he got a job at a plant industry in Ogun State and needed some money to travel down there and settle in.

But it turned out he was a scammer, as many of his victims shared their experiences with him. Like Baba Dudu, he had been deceiving Twitter users with the same format for a while, because some of the messages were sent last September.

In some messages, he claimed he resided in Abeokuta in Ogun State and had been offered a job in Ibadan, Oyo State. He said he lacked the financial capacity to rent an apartment.

As seen in another message that he sent on March 31, 2023, he told Abiola A. that he had been offered a job, after a long time without one.

He claimed that he was based in Ibadan but would need to relocate in order to start work on April 3.

In the message, Oluwatoyosi said he needed to add N35,000 to the N95,000 he had so he could pay for a low-cost apartment.

Abiola was initially skeptical about Oluwatoyosi’s message, but he got convinced after the guy sent him a snapshot of his international passport to prove that he was not a scammer.

To assist him, Abiola sent him N50,000 that same Friday.