by Farouk Martins Aresa
Poor men, they still have to learn from women how to cool their temper when reacting to romantic 419ners. In a $5 billion fraud and money laundering conspiracy discovered by Toronto Police, a Canadian lady lost $609,000 life savings without killing a fly. Reaction to this lady’s loss in Canada’s social media is only surpassed by the Greeks reaction when Jackie Kennedy became Jackie Onassis. The con artist brought the worst out of a few people against all Nigerians.
If it had gained traction before election, Trudeau could have lost based on his accommodating view on immigrants. One person went as far as calling for burning or freezing the 419ner at the stake. Haba, nobody gets as mad as Nigerians when it comes to romantic scams. Both men and women have been victims and those that have killed their wives or husbands have not been spared. The minute anyone kills a romantic 419ner, he turns her into a victim. See Poor lady
Most Nigerians are not politicians or crooks that dispossess their fellow men, treasury and foreigners. One has to see the average Nigerians work from dawn to dust eking out a living, even on the streets of many cities. Indeed, the average Nigerian depends on her daily output not on government. It is the local governments that devise every way to tax the poor working folks while the rich and the politicians laugh all the way to the bank with their loot without tax.
Five hundred billion dollars sounds like an exaggeration but loneliness and promise of romance can drive even a prudent woman or man into infatuation. Social network has made this scam easier since nude pictures can be sent to anywhere across the world from the privacy of a room. It makes it convenient to talk and arrange the infatuation some rich people are starving for.
There are enough warnings out there but none of them listen. Nigerians have been accused of exporting 419 out of the Country yet nobody dares question the lasciviousness of the victims’ attraction to sex addicts. No reasonable and dependable man or woman spends useful time on social media advertising their private parts to the whole world. Even if they are reasonable in most aspect of their lives, most addicts display some character flaw that needs treatment.
Until recently, Nigerians at home and abroad arrange for beautiful bride or groom in the village. Some borrow money from the bank if they do not have it. By the time they acquire their dream ladies or young men, they must have spent a fortune on various items required for marriage. It must be said that some old men used it as their retirement insurance in preference for a nurse or some educated professional they think can be milked for higher returns.
Nigerians have generally condemned old men scouting for nurses only to be disappointed when she spends her money on herself and her family but very little money on him. They find out that their initial investment on her has gone down the drain. Someone saw it differently: that as long as she spends the money on the children, he would be satisfied. In some cases, the women just disappear, unless they are stuck with Nemesis and become hopelessly dependent.
In the case of foreign old women getting hooked to African young men, they usually get what they paid for. Unfortunately, when recommended to their friends to pursue these same African young men, a few get duped even before seeing their “lover” physically. The only time we hear about them is when police get involved. Unlike Nigerian men that have fallen into the hands of 419ners, these women do not get violent but get even, realizing how foolish they have been.
There is nothing wrong with young women that decide on their own that they fancy an older man but when an older man thinks he can buy her love with money, he is in for surprises. It is also true of an elderly lady that thinks she still has “spurt” and class to attract a young man. Once it all depends on money, to maintain that relationship, the cash has to keep on coming. The day it stops spell the end of the relationship. The loser cries for vengeance!
Money itself can buy time for couples if their behavior becomes compatible during the short time they are together, but it must not be the principal attraction. It is the reason some take the money and run even before physical contact, some linger on while others are hopelessly stuck planning for the demise of the one with money, as inheritance. It hardly works out as planned. Man proposes and God disposes.
We have to face the fact sometimes. While 419 comes from Nigeria, the scheme itself is not limited or invented in Nigeria. Certain factors have to be present in order to catch their victims. It is usually bases on American sweepstakes – YOU MAY HAVE JUST WON A MILLION. Millions of notices go out everyday in Canada and USA to vulnerable people, especially the elderly that they qualify to win a million dollars.
Though this is legally done, it is immoral to prey on people’s weaknesses, in this case greed. It does not take too much intelligence to combine greed, sex and loneliness. There are fraudsters everywhere including Canada and USA. Whenever Mr. Stone, Scott or English is caught in any of these schemes, nobody advocates that they should be burned on the stake or deported back to Europe. But when their own citizen from Nigeria is caught, we see and hear the unprintable.
Even a Reverend that got calls for down payment from Nigeria, thought God finally answered! Most of these criminals have left Africa as children but cultivated criminal behavior in their new countries. The Government of Jamaica had to reject a deal sometime ago on returning criminals back to the home they do not even know or have existing relatives. So if these criminals are the citizen of Canada or USA, please keep the criminals that your system created.
We have enough of our problems to deal with.
