By Alhaji Alhasan Abdulai
Don?t worry if your vehicle number plate, telephone number or any of your membership registration numbers begins with 419 or has it in the numbers. Don?t get worried even if people decide to falsely associate you with activities of men and women who are engaged in cyber fraud and other fraudulent activities especially in the West Africa sub region. Just stay focused and be God fearing. Don?t worry and go about your business and not go anywhere near living off the 419 tag. It is said that there is nothing in a name. And I dare say that there is nothing in numbers. Numbers are but figures used in working arithmetic or for identifying personalities and items in groups. If your ID number bears 419 in parts, as seen currently in some telephone and identity cards that does not make you a criminal.
The 419 is referred to a ?Nigerian? scam which is a form of upfront payment or money transfer scam. They are called Nigerian scams because the first wave of them came from Nigeria, but they can come from anywhere in the world. The ?4-1-9? part of the name comes from the section of Nigeria?s Criminal Code which outlaws the practice.
The scammers usually contact you by email or letter and offer you a share in a large sum of money that they want to transfer out of their country. They may tell you about money trapped in central banks during civil wars or coups, often in countries currently in the news. Or they may tell you about massive inheritances that are difficult to access because of government restrictions or taxes in the scammer?s country.
Scammers ask you to pay money or give them your bank account details to help them transfer the money. You are then asked to pay fees, charges or taxes to help release or transfer the money out of the country through your bank. These ?fees? may even start out as quite small amounts. If paid, the scammers make up new fees that require payment before you can receive your ?reward?. They will keep making up these excuses until they think they have got all the money they can out of you. You will never be sent the money that was promised.
Even though the scamming is done largely through internet telephones the deal has been extended to cover other areas of fraudulent activities that include fraudulent sale of land, cars and other properties by fraudsters.
The 419 number in your identity cards, car number or telephone number might evoke fear in people or lead to people just teasing or poking fun on you . Don?t worry. Remain unperturbed if you know you don?t belong to the gang of fraudsters who are tagged with 419 or intend to belong to them.
Source: Alhaji Alhasan Abdulai
EANFOWORLD FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
0244 370345/ 0264370345/0208844791
[email protected]/[email protected]
