The funniest thing happened to me just yesterday…yep February 10th 2014. Another ‘friend’ asked for my help and I knew straight away it was a thief at work. An ex-secondary school colleague asking for airtime online, Facebook to be precise is not only dodgy but too much for me to swallow. I’ve not seen her in twenty-four years and a request for two thousand naira airtime whilst in a meeting was just not convincing enough!
This individual was definitely off their game as the reasoning of being in a meeting (using social media for a prolonged period whilst in it) and requiring airtime simultaneously just didn’t click. Pardon me for jumping the gun anyway but I did and I also managed to tell this person off too. My language was restricted to thief, ole and shio (this was truly inspired I tell you) but it gave me immense pleasure to do. My only thought was that hopefully someone else didn’t quickly send it only to discover they’ve been had.
This was my first ‘live’ encounter online, the other was a call some years back when I was supposed to fall for a relative living in the UK. That one too didn’t work out for the guy at the other end of the line either. Encounters with internet conmen or women have become commonplace and sadly enough it’s not something that’s going away any time soon. The only thing we should all do is be alert and cautious whilst going about our business in cyberspace.
It’s become common to receive spam on Facebook, something that was totally unheard of initially. Now unwanted messages and requests from fraudsters is something we’ve learned to live with. Reporting, blocking and deleting conversations and such individuals are options we can utilise to banish them and more often than not one has to be used in the course of time. It’s sad that one of the last communities previously free of this scourge is now infected even though their team tries its best to keep it spam free.
Hackers exist and are hard at work to cause disruption; this keeps various sites and platforms on high alert from their forays. If your email, blog or website has never been count yourself lucky because it’s not funny when it happens. Unfortunately some people whose accounts have suffered this breach have had repercussions on their friends. These thieves (best description) often tell tales about a grave personal incident and try and milk money for a fictitious emergency, often in a bid to help a good friend some have fallen for these scams.
I recall when I got a mail from a friend sometime last year (or 2012) requesting for money etc. Immediately I called her to let her know her account had been so she could do something about it. I reasoned that although good friends if she needed money (for anything) I wouldn’t be her first recourse or close to her last either. I later learned someone wired the money requested to the account in a bid to be of assistance.
Sometimes I know that we’re often overwrought and emotions drive us to act before we’ve thought clearly. Living in a fast paced world has taught us not to be too emotional when things occur and although counter-intuitive we have to learn how this can be done seamlessly. We must beware and security conscious online and in reality too, naivety is not worth the consequence it brings when we fall victim to scammers. In all we must keep abreast of various developments and also use the God given common sense we’ve been blessed with when events unfold.
