Social media is fun ! It has brought a lot of good things to the world but at the same brought a lot of pain. Scammers have made social media their number one platform and they keep bringing up one strategy or the other. Some scams are obvious while others are not and without wasting any time I want to show you some ways Nigerians fall prey to scammers on social media. They are called Yahoo boys even though most of them use Facebook, maybe the name should be changed to Facebook boys. Lol

1. ROMANCE

This is like the easiest and most popular form of tactics being used by scammers and surprisingly people fall for this everyday especially ladies. Anyone can just sweet talk a lady into parting with her money especially when the lady is desperate and needs love and attention. That doesn’t mean guys don’t fall either. Scammers now use female profile pictures to fool guys as well and get money from them. Some scammers are well organised and they have females working for them, answering the phones and so on.

2. IDENTITY THEFT

In one of my recent blog posts I made a detailed review of how Identity theft work and how to easily identify it. They can easily steal the identity of someone close to you and start sending you “convincing” private messages and you think you’re dealing with the right person. Before you know it you have revealed your personal details to them.

3. People asking for help.

Humans are emotional and will always help each other. It’s very good to help others but the sad irony is, scammers use this method a lot especially on social media. They tell touching stories that may be nothing more than a well garnished lie just to play with your emotions and before you know it, you’ve fallen prey to a scammer. This sad trend still happen everyday.

4. Phishing

They send e-mails and more e-mails to remind you that your subscription will soon expire bla bla bla. This seems obvious, but with more and more companies offering real support on social media, remember. Your bank will never ask for your account number on social media. Or your PIN or your password. Yet people still drop their bank details to some crook hiding behind a laptop!

5. Money laundering

Scammers are scammers because they’re good at tricking people. People have gotten into trouble by just helping others receiving money and withdrawing it for them or allowing someone transfer money into their accounts. They come up with stories of how they’ve exceeded their withdrawal limit bla bla bla or their wife is in labor and they can’t afford to wait on the line. You don’t know if the money is being transferred with a stolen ATM card and automatically the bank blocks your account and send out an alert on you. The moment you walk into the bank to make a complaint, you get arrested and land in jail.