Yahoo mail and Yahoo millionaires
NaijaRock
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Posted by Felix Okoli on November 18, 2009 at 12:28:51:
It all began with Yahoo, of course you know - The best web based free email service
Yahoo is where millions of Nigerians first begin their cybersteps. Yahoo is one of the top three websites visited to from Nigeria as it allows users to have free email accounts. A free email acccount is what I would call one of the very first of the internet goods. Of course, they are many things you could get free from the internet, but none of them is comparable to having an email account.
An email account registers one's first step on the internet as it gives the user a unique space and address of his own on the web. An email account is unique such that it belongs to only one person and so the free and wonderful gift of an email account is what Yahoo has blessed millions and millions of Nigerians with.
Nigeria is a developing nation and in terms of information technology, it is the fastest growing in West Africa and among the fastest in Africa. The irony however with the internet penetration in Nigeria and among Nigerians across Africa is that the growth in internet knowledge is not directly linked to increasing business presence on the internet or increasing economic growth but rather is creating a crop of what many bloggers and newspaper editors ahave termed "Yahoo millionaires." The word now on the lips of a young Nigerian in secondary or Higher institution is "How to be a Yahoo millionaire." While we cannot rule out the fact that there although exists a few crop or truly talented Nigerians having created successful internet companies and profitable web concerns like blogs and corporate e-commerce websites, there exists a very huge class of misdirected youths who have chosen to make the quick buck by simply becoming a Yahoozee.
The trend among Yahoo millionaires and wannabe's seems to be changing and the culprits are improving on their skills. The first crop of Yahoo millionaires have made millions of naira sending thousands of 419(advanced fee fraud) letters to email addresses of people in the USA, Britain, France and even Germany, the next set of Yahoo millionaires and wannabes have devised new skills like hacking into email accounts remotely as well as creating fake websites to collect credit and ATM cards of people from around the world. The stage for the so called mugus have become borderless as no one is spared. It is no longer an issue of whether you were a white or Nigerian, but these fraudsters have set to catch everyone in their net. They have read far and wide about hacking and social engineering such that you find out that these next generation of Yahoo millionaires are graduates who are equally well grounded in computer science and related courses and have been inspired by friends and colleagues who have made millions in the past from this growing internet business. Lest i forget, there is a growing scam message being sent to thousands of GSM numbers with a view to collect personal and banking information from them. These messages appear to be sent from MTN, Glo or Zain and they tell users to visit strange websites in order to fill in their personal details. Such details as have been seen would include banking and ATM details which will later be used by the 419ers to create cloned ATM cards which would be later used to withdraw funds from ATM cards from any location in Nigeria.
Some of the so called GSM lottery websites some of which have been closed down includes
www.verifyng.com, www.xtraconnectoffers.com, www.xtracooloffer.com, e.t.c. Now I have lost count as they have been more than 100 of such fraudulent domains.It would be hard to stop the growing trend of young Nigerians who want to be Yahoo millionaires but I think one way to reverse this negativity is to register all internet users in Nigeria and also control the way cybercafes allow users to use their facilities by ensuring that they register all users.
The issue of internet fraud or cybercrime has already been outlawed in Nigeria with scape goats already disgraced and out in Jail but their stories seem to be an inspiring factor to these young people and so we need to do more than Jail them.
Comments:
It all began with Yahoo, of course you know - The best web based free email service
Yahoo is where millions of Nigerians first begin their cybersteps. Yahoo is one of the top three websites visited to from Nigeria as it allows users to have free email accounts. A free email acccount is what I would call one of the very first of the internet goods. Of course, they are many things you could get free from the internet, but none of them is comparable to having an email account.
An email account registers one's first step on the internet as it gives the user a unique space and address of his own on the web. An email account is unique such that it belongs to only one person and so the free and wonderful gift of an email account is what Yahoo has blessed millions and millions of Nigerians with.
Nigeria is a developing nation and in terms of information technology, it is the fastest growing in West Africa and among the fastest in Africa. The irony however with the internet penetration in Nigeria and among Nigerians across Africa is that the growth in internet knowledge is not directly linked to increasing business presence on the internet or increasing economic growth but rather is creating a crop of what many bloggers and newspaper editors ahave termed "Yahoo millionaires." The word now on the lips of a young Nigerian in secondary or Higher institution is "How to be a Yahoo millionaire." While we cannot rule out the fact that there although exists a few crop or truly talented Nigerians having created successful internet companies and profitable web concerns like blogs and corporate e-commerce websites, there exists a very huge class of misdirected youths who have chosen to make the quick buck by simply becoming a Yahoozee.
The trend among Yahoo millionaires and wannabe's seems to be changing and the culprits are improving on their skills. The first crop of Yahoo millionaires have made millions of naira sending thousands of 419(advanced fee fraud) letters to email addresses of people in the USA, Britain, France and even Germany, the next set of Yahoo millionaires and wannabes have devised new skills like hacking into email accounts remotely as well as creating fake websites to collect credit and ATM cards of people from around the world. The stage for the so called mugus have become borderless as no one is spared. It is no longer an issue of whether you were a white or Nigerian, but these fraudsters have set to catch everyone in their net. They have read far and wide about hacking and social engineering such that you find out that these next generation of Yahoo millionaires are graduates who are equally well grounded in computer science and related courses and have been inspired by friends and colleagues who have made millions in the past from this growing internet business. Lest i forget, there is a growing scam message being sent to thousands of GSM numbers with a view to collect personal and banking information from them. These messages appear to be sent from MTN, Glo or Zain and they tell users to visit strange websites in order to fill in their personal details. Such details as have been seen would include banking and ATM details which will later be used by the 419ers to create cloned ATM cards which would be later used to withdraw funds from ATM cards from any location in Nigeria.
Some of the so called GSM lottery websites some of which have been closed down includes
www.verifyng.com, www.xtraconnectoffers.com, www.xtracooloffer.com, e.t.c. Now I have lost count as they have been more than 100 of such fraudulent domains.It would be hard to stop the growing trend of young Nigerians who want to be Yahoo millionaires but I think one way to reverse this negativity is to register all internet users in Nigeria and also control the way cybercafes allow users to use their facilities by ensuring that they register all users.
The issue of internet fraud or cybercrime has already been outlawed in Nigeria with scape goats already disgraced and out in Jail but their stories seem to be an inspiring factor to these young people and so we need to do more than Jail them.
Comments: