{"id":25,"date":"2009-05-25T18:26:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-25T18:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thanassiscambanis.com\/sipa\/?p=25"},"modified":"2010-04-13T04:21:08","modified_gmt":"2010-04-13T04:21:08","slug":"down-in-festac-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thanassiscambanis.com\/sipa\/2009\/05\/down-in-festac-town\/","title":{"rendered":"Down in Festac Town"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nigeria is clamping down on its infamous email scammers. But it is law enforcement enough?<\/em><\/p>\n

Lagos, Nigeria\u2014Remember that Nigerian prince who contacted you a few months back, saying he needed assistance transferring his inheritance to the United States. If you would help him he would give you 10 percent of the total sum?<\/p>\n

All he needed was your bank account details, and you\u2019d be well on your way to riches\u2014or at least on your way to seeing your riches siphoned off to an enterprising Nigerian.<\/p>\n

Chances are, that email was written from a console somewhere in Festac Town, a quiet, ramshackle suburb of Lagos, Nigeria.<\/p>\n

Here, a cluster of net caf\u00e9\u2019s are rumored in Lagos\u2019s press to be some of the last holdouts against a Nigerian federal crackdown on the country\u2019s email scammers.<\/p>\n

The Electronic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of Nigeria has been putting email scammers in jail for the last two years. The commission has had some high profile victories. In October, it arrested 58 scammers in the city of Kaduna. The EFCC has invited journalists on a successful high-profile operation to apprehend a scamming ring and cooperation between international police agencies have foiled Nigerian-led rings that ran multimillion-dollar fraud schemes. In a 2007 report, the EFCC said it handled more than 18,000 advanced-fee fraud cases, a six-fold increase in just four years.<\/p>\n

Now, even the net cafes in Festac are feeling the heat. Signs on the walls warn that the EFCC is watching and will prosecute scammers. Caf\u00e9 managers are guarded.<\/p>\n

\"img_3335\"

A sign at Steadylink Communications warns against scamming.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

In Lagos, Festac Town has the reputation of a crumbling neighborhood. It was once a posh, park-lined suburb that the Nigerian government built in 1977, during the country\u2019s first oil boom, to house participants in the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture. The festival drew tens of thousands from around the world to celebrate the achievements of the African Diaspora. Festac remained an upscale, desirable neighborhood until the 1980s.<\/p>\n

But in the 1980s and 90s, Nigeria\u2019s military government allowed Festac to deteriorate, and its wealthier residents left for newer neighborhoods. The area became a destination for youths hanging on to the bottom edge of Lagos\u2019s middle class.<\/p>\n

The history of Festac Town is a distinctly Nigerian one\u2014a tale of squandered wealth and dashed potential. The idle, able youth who populate its Internet cafes, like Festac Town\u2019s apartment buildings, were made for a future of far more promise.<\/p>\n

When I walk into Steadylink Communication, a dimly lit, third-floor caf\u00e9 with unfinished plywood cubicles, customers\u2019 heads immediately turn. A foreigner with a notepad is not a common sight in this far-flung neighborhood. But my friend Kirk\u2014a local journalist who has offered to show me around\u2014tells me that a Nigerian in the same position would stir far more suspicion. People say that the EFCC has been sending undercover agents to shut down cafes.<\/p>\n

\"img_3334\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear to me, or to most anyone I talk to, whether the EFCC efforts have actually stopped small-time scammers from fishing for prey, or just driven them underground. The Internet Crime and Complaint Center (IC3), a U.S. federal body that tracks crime on the Web, actually reported an increase last year in the percentage of Internet crimes in the United States that had Nigerian perpetrators. For years, the IC3 has ranked Nigeria as the number-three source of Internet crimes in the world, behind the United States and the United Kingdom. The fact that Internet penetration in Nigeria is less than 7 percent seems to indicate that Nigerian scammers are particularly industrious.<\/p>\n

The variety of scams is constantly growing. They prey not only on victims\u2019 na\u00efvet\u00e9 but also their greed\u2014common scams include a request to facilitate a bank transfer of ill-gotten money. With a global pool to fish from\u2014victims hail from richer countries on every continent\u2014scammers only need a tiny percentage of people to take the bait.<\/p>\n

The EFCC may not have stopped these scams, but the campaign has made a strong impression on caf\u00e9 owners. Prince Kenneth Okonedo, the managing director of Steadylink, shows up in the caf\u00e9 shortly after I arrive and starts feeding me talking points that sound well-practiced.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can monitor all the activity of computers in the caf\u00e9,\u201d he tells me. \u201cIf we catch someone doing illegal things on their computers, we kick them out. If they come back, then we don\u2019t serve them, because we know their face.\u201d
\nOkonendo claims that has been happening a lot less frequently.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is always someone stubborn,\u201d he adds with a smile. \u201cIf that happens, we can call troops to come and take them.\u201d He says he has taken those measures only a couple of times, though he can\u2019t describe a specific instance.<\/p>\n

Caf\u00e9 users I meet in Nigeria tell me that, since the EFCC campaign began, caf\u00e9 staff peer over shoulders and monitor all the activity that occurs on their Internet Service Providers (ISPs). The EFCC is monitoring caf\u00e9 activity, so the caf\u00e9s monitor their customers. Okonendo confirms this, and tells me that the telltale sign of a scammer at work is that a vast amount of similar, template text will pass through the caf\u00e9\u2019s ISP. This signals that someone is using cut and paste to send bulk spam, and a staff person makes a visit to the terminal.<\/p>\n

Nextdoor at King\u2019s Net Caf\u00e9, the manager on duty has a similar message to Okonendo\u2019s. King\u2019s caf\u00e9 is more upscale. Natural light floods the room from three sides, there\u2019s a pool table in one corner and an employee wearing a blue polo emblazoned with the caf\u00e9\u2019s name serves soft drinks. The clientele\u2014almost entirely young men\u2014chat, surf and shoot eight ball.<\/p>\n

Manager Ope Loye sits behind a laptop with a camera attached to it. A ask him if he knows the hit Nigerian rap tune \u201cYahooze<\/a>\u201d,in which singer Olu Maintain celebrates the high-rolling life of an email scammer. He laughs sheepishly.
\nLoye says no one is allowed to scam at his caf\u00e9. \u201cOnce they come in, we start monitoring, and if they are doing anything with cut and paste or anything like that, we ask them to leave.\u201d That barely ever happens\u2014fast wireless connections are not hard to get in Nigeria, and more email scammers are working from home now, he says.<\/p>\n

But no matter how much the EFCC clamps down, the underlying reasons that Nigeria has gained the reputation of global Internet scam capital remain. Nigeria boasts a huge pool of relatively well-educated, jobless youth.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have a situation where you produce very educated graduates, people who are exposed well, aware of what\u2019s happening and all of that,\u201d says Ayo Olagunju, a software designer and financial analyst who grew up in Festac. \u201cSo you have educated people who are unemployed. And then maybe a friend says, Hey, you can make some quick bucks here. And you try it, and it works, and you get addicted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fundamentally, Olagunju says, the email scam epidemic is the straightforward result of having highly skilled, Internet-savvy youths with no meaningful, legal opportunities to do work.<\/p>\n

Olagunju would like to see government programs that help young scammers become legitimate entrepreneurs. He says Internet crime is just as damaging to Nigeria as it is to na\u00efve foreign victims.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m in the financial industry, and a deal I should just talk through over dinner, you have to word it and get lawyers to convince them you\u2019re not fake,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s affecting people who are genuine.\u201d<\/p>\n

In their search for riches, he says, email scammers keep digging Nigeria into a deeper hole.