In simple explanation, a Yahoo-yahoo boy is someone with fraudulent disposition and mentality, with the aim of defrauding an unsuspecting person of his or her financial belongings using Internet-enabled devices like computers and phones to fulfill his personal and selfish aggrandizement.
They used to be known as scammers, tricksters and were ordinarily referred to as “Wayo boys.”
Their stock in trade is simply to defraud people of their money. Their age ranges between 16 and 35 years, but, unfortunately, a larger percent of them are students of higher institutions across the country. Their major tools are mobile phones and laptop computers. They became more noticeable with the advent of social media. With an eagle eye, you can easily identify them loitering around hotel lobbies, big restaurants, cyber cafes, bank premises and around ATM machines. All they need are receipts of your banking transactions so as to lay hands on your name and bank account. You see them prying behind you while transacting financial business on any ATM machine, just to cram your banking details or lay hand on your ATM receipt. Oftentimes, they are the handy buyers of stolen phones, wherein they search for individuals’ bank details and transactions.
Yahoo boys are the most patient creatures on earth. Reason being that it takes an ingenious person much time and expertise to hack into an account. While some are into hacking of individual accounts, others are specialists in posing to be what they are not on the Internet. Don’t be deceived, the friend that you requested to assist you fix your phone may have forwarded vital banking details from your handset to another, probably to his phone. Also, the emergency phone repairer you gave your phone for repair may have transferred your bank details to another phone. It is advisable to delete every bank transaction on your phone before handing it to repairers.
Yahoo boys are ingenious in creating a make believe business, sale of fake property or products on the Internet via Facebook, Instagram and many other platforms.
A platform had included my phone number where they were advertising payment of a mouth-watering financial percentage increase if one participated in the transaction. You deposit N50,000 and, after a month, you are paid either 50 or 100 per cent of your original deposit. That is fraud because there is no known financial transaction that can give such a turnover. Yet, many have been gullible and fallen into such financial traps.
Before now, there were departments of the Nigeria Police established specifically to handle and investigate the crime of fraud and graft. The anti-fraud section of the Nigeria Police, which was under the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) later transformed into the Special Fraud Unit (SFU) before the creation of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The EFCC was established in 2003, partially in response to pressure from the International Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering, which named Nigeria as one of 23 countries not cooperating in the international community’s efforts to fight money laundering.
A time was when these boys gravely painted the country as a den of fraudsters. A good percentage of our youths with no means of livelihood were always in either the net of the Metropolitan Police in Britain or with the FBI in the United States or languishing in one Asian prison or other remote countries around the world. Their notoriety affected the movement of Nigerians as immigration officers became more vigilant in scrutinizing every Nigerian green passport.
Since its establishment, the heat on fraudsters around the country by successive chairmen of the commission has been very commendable despite the growing rate of corruption in the country. It is estimated that several hundreds of Yahoo boys are being hunted down for arrest and eventual prosecution.
Although there are no official statistics to buttress the rising graph of youths getting involved in fraudulent activities, yet the commission has left no one in doubt of its resolve to upgrade its war against Yahoo boys. Such unfortunate lack of official statistics needs to be corrected because statistics are tools of planning and development.
Yahoo boys are extravagant in spending because the money comes without sweat; They love high life and late night activities. Recent investigation directs attention to university students who drive flashy cars and those who rent expensive accommodations and lavish money on girlfriends as some of the Yahoo boys. Report indicates that some of the boys were solely behind the sponsoring of the #EndSARS agitation across the country. Investigation also has shown that they abhor and shun either government or private employment, as they prefer to go solo.
They are good in networking with other perpetrators. Apart from residing in secluded areas of the community, they are usually identified with schoolbags used to carry their tools of operation. Most times, they deceive fellow tenants with the false disposition of posing as students, businessmen, workers, marketers or house agents. They are big buyers of network data. A T-shirt upon jeans trousers are all they wear until they scale the first hurdle. Once they have succeeded in the first move, they get glued, hoping to reach the sky. Many are free spenders who would not price a product before paying.
The proceeds are usually used to purchase landed property or saloon cars. The question is: why are the youths attracted to this illegal trade? Could the urge to get rich quick be responsible? Could this be attributable to government’s inability to provide employment or is it due to moral decadence that is gradually eating up the social fabric of society? Unfortunately, what is more worrisome is the breakdown in family and religious values among the youths who now regard money as the ultimate in life, instead of hard work and the fear of God.
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Security Tip
Yahoo-yahoo boys are dangerous to our economy. Report any suspect or economic saboteurs to the EFCC: contact +234-80933-22–644.
