Last Updated on September 17, 2015
Scammers attempt to trick their victims by gaining their confidence. I have always believed that this sort of deception happens to the greedy ones. They try to earn with less or nothing. Everyday, people are deceived from elaborate fake stories about large amount of money trapped in central bank during civil war or coups either in Senegal or Ghana. They may tell you about a large inheritance that is difficult to access because of government restrictions. I first received this type of message from a dating wapsite back then in 2010. In 2014, i received the same type of message on Facebook. The annoying part is that they lack the sense to restructure their message.
The most intelligent people are often the most likely to fall for a victim.
I’m very sorry to say this, Nigerians too like awoof (Free things). One Nigerian rapper, Phyno, says in one of his songs “Nothing is free even in Freetown” Everybody likes free stuffs but dearly is a curse. Online ads that assure to pay one $5 on visitor’s referral and probably $30 to $40 dollars on registration. The question becomes “How do they get the money to pay thousands of free enticed people?” You come around to a website, they add a purported $40 on your profile, whenever you invite a friend over, $5 added. Assuming in a day you were able to invite 20 persons, a whooping 100 grand for you plus $40, summing $140. You become rich with no sweat, no stress. I have never imagined such a scenario except in heaven. At least, you went through thorns and stress on earth. What they actually do is; they collect your email, sell it to online advertisers that send promotional junk mails (sometimes referred to as Spam mails) to these people. Some hack the email accounts checking for personal and financial details.
In Nigeria, customers to our local network misconstrue myriads of attempts engineered by these cheats. Sometimes they label it as a LACASERA promos, Free midnight calls promos, Nation’s anniversary, Raffle draw etc. It’s only greed that will entice one to go after what he/she never subscribed to. They might have demanded for a recharge card or obliged you to call a pastor for directives pertaining claim.
Recently, it looked like they were beginning to lose their credibility to their victims, they now device a mean that do not really oblige you to
send a recharge card. At least you need to feel suspicious how telecommunication giants like MTN, GLO, ETISALAT, ZAIN oblige customers to pay a price or send recharge cards in other to redeem being a winner. These telecommunication giants have warned customers that they are not in any way responsible for the pranks played on them. They will always call the winner as long as he/she subscribed for their promo.
Today, Facebook has emerged as top online marketing platform where sellers of different products showcase their services.
Two posts i saw on Facebook made me to write this article. Recently, MTN began to allow selected customers to enjoy an unlimited call credits upto N20,000 to N30,000. It only takes a minimum of N40 to N150 then you are good to creating a conference call with friends and family. But the posts i saw were made by two different users asserting that there is a FREE cheat to an unlimited call bonus. They had the same message format but little reconfiguration. The other guy deleted his post because i threatened to report his number to MTN.
Their own steps of getting this unlimited credit bonus are:
- Buy MTN recharge card worth N200, N300, N400 depending on the amount of bonus you wish to get.
- Do not recharge yet.
- Compose a text message in this format ” *The card serial number* The card 12 digits PIN*141#
eg. *49336912110920*550196890101*141# and send to this secret MTN IMDF number..0092347030203022 - After sending it, wait for 10mins.
- Recharge your PIN in their format “*555*Recharge Pin*Your IMDF#”.
They will warn you not to recharge until you have gotten their so called IDMF number from number.This will make sure that they received your message before the 10mins.
Sorry to let you know that someone smarter has recharged your airtime.
From what i learnt, MTN doesn’t request you perform any of these tasks. Permit me to explain these false steps;
The correct format for Nigeria mobile is 009234 where 009 is the same as + sign. It usually prefixed to landline phones. Then 234 is a part of Nigerian telephone code.
Joining the two, it forms +234 or 009234. Assuming this is my MTN number 07030203022, if i replace the first 0 with +234 or 009234 it becomes 0092347030203022. It is still
the same number with 07030203022. For benefit of doubt, add 009234 to your MTN number then call your line from another phone or send an sms to the number.
You still receive the call or sms on your very hand. They try to fabricate it to make it look genuine.
In short, don’t fall a victim of this, even if you have earlier, don’t fall again.
You can read insights from Scamwatch.
Thank you.
