Nigeria has been known to be a country of immense potential. It's why a lot of people tend to bend towards assisting as many of us over here as they can in order to encourage our growth.

I was having a conversation with someone today who had been involved in internet love scams for a while until he got bored and stopped. As much as I consider the act foolish, I felt bad at how impressed I was by his strategy. He actually dropped out of university for 3 years to master this act.

The Strategy

The conversation started as a joke. And then it leads to him telling me about his ideas behind creating the perfect profile on dating sites.

Apparently, there's a trick to that.

Due to the fact that he's aware of his inability to speak proper English, he created a profile with one English name and another name with a different language. He mentioned how his go-to language was Spanish. Said he could easily make mistakes during conversations and blame it on his inability to speak proper English.

Right after that, he told me a story of how he got into conversations with people. He said there was a trick to that too.

After creating the profile with somewhat believable details, he said he let out those details at the beginning of the conversation to get things started. After this point, the conversation simply flows with a breakdown of details for a few days until the pleas for funds begin.

He talked about how easy it was for him to get phone numbers from different counties and account details and whatever resources he would need to proceed with his activity.

He told me a story about a certain day when a "client" had gotten to the bank and was just about to make the transfer when the bank manager decided to contact the recipient and advised the "client" against making the transfer.

I've never exactly gotten the details of how these internet scams take place until today. I really just thought they used some supernatural powers all the time and people just released the funds.

The entire process just seems like a lot of stress really. I don't exactly enjoy long conversations with strangers so I consider that a lot of work.

It's rare to see a young guy in this part of the world who lives an ostentatious life through honest means. Dishonest money usually comes with an unnecessary amount of wealth display. It's the first sign.

The "clients"

The majority of people prone to falling for these sorts of love scams are lonely senior citizens. I recently joined a language exchange site and found myself in a very long Algerian retiree who already offered to teach me French and bring me over to Paris the next time he visits.

I didn't even want that. I just wanted a language exchange partner. I got off the site a while after that coz like I said, long conversations with strangers stress me.

I can't say I have any major tips on how to avoid these internet love scams, however, I can only give a bit of advice: Don't send money to strangers you meet over the internet. It's that simple.

I know it may get boring being alone and retired, however, if you really need a companion, get a dog or a cat. They're a lot cheaper and won't fake an accent just for sports.

---

Check out my Freelance Gigs

• I will write fintech and crypto articles for you
• I will write thrilling short stories for you

You can contact me:

• Twitter @karina_lovet
• Instagram @kmama
• Discord @kmama
  

Posted Using LeoFinance ^Beta