ADF STAFF
Nigeria’s so-called Yahoo Boys begin learning the tricks of online fraud early. They’re often as young as 12 when they are recruited into the country’s cybercrime training network known as “hustle kingdom.”
By the time they graduate from high school, many Yahoo Boys are skilled at deceiving online victims through a variety of schemes, from scams that extort victims through online dating sites to phishing emails designed to trick recipients into opening their computer networks to attacks.
“Tackling this issue requires urgent attention at both local and global levels,” Suleman Lazarus, a Nigerian cybercrime expert, wrote in The Conversation.
Lazarus has studied the methods Nigeria’s hustle kingdom graduates use to scam online victims out of billions of dollars every year. While some of those victims are in other African nations, most of them are in North America and Europe where “Nigerian princes” have been a fixture of scams for decades.
As Lazarus and other cybercrime experts note, the fraud being perpetrated by Yahoo Boys is not new — fraudsters played on their victims naivete long before the internet came along. Now, however, the pervasiveness of the online world, social media and email has created an environment where, for many people, fraud is more lucrative than legitimate work.
One hustle kingdom graduate, identified only as “Wizzy,” recently told Voice of America why he chose online fraud over legal work.
“I’m a graphic designer. I do office work,” Wizzy said. “Some people who give you work do not pay.”
Those who do pay, he said, may pay as little as $2 for a job. Online scams can generate thousands of dollars by comparison.
In November, Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission arrested 10 men in Makuri, Benue State on charges of being part of an online fraud operation. Some of those men portrayed themselves as women on social media as part of a romance scheme.
In 2022, Nigerian authorities raided a hustle kingdom academy operating in Abuja where they found 16 boys being trained in online fraud. They arrested the operator, Afolabi Samad, and confiscated computers, mobile telephones, and other technology, along with a Lexus SUV and a Toyota Highlander SUV. The high-end vehicles are an example of how hustle kingdom operators often recruit new members by displaying the kind of wealth they can earn through finding victims on online dating sites and elsewhere, according to Lazarus.
“The glamorization of wealth plays a significant role in normalizing and legitimizing online romance fraud in West Africa,” Lazarus wrote in a study of online romance fraud published by the Journal of Economic Criminology.
“Fraudsters use displays of wealth, such as luxury cars and houses, to entice and recruit individuals in their local communities who view their wealth with envy and admiration,” Lazarus added. “Rather than being condemned, fraudsters are often seen as resourceful and intelligent, further perpetuating the social legitimacy of their criminal activities.”
Nigeria’s hustle kingdom ultimately feeds online fraudsters into a sprawling network ruled by Black Axe, a violent, organized criminal group. Interpol has sought to dismantle a vast network of cybercrime and financial fraud operated by Black Axe and its affiliates. In mid-2024, police agencies in 21 countries arrested more than 300 people associated with Black Axe. Interpol described Operation Jackal III as a major blow against the criminal network.
Tomonobu Kaya, a senior official at Interpol’s Financial Crime and Anti-Corruption Center, told the BBC that online fraudsters have been quick to adopt financial technologies such as money transfer and cryptocurrency as part of their operations.
While international police agencies have successfully combatted Black Axe, Nigerian authorities have had less success, according to Matthew La Lime, a researcher at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies.
“Many Black Axe members have grown into shrewd cybercriminals who specialize in defrauding businesses out of thousands if not millions of dollars,” La Lime wrote recently. “The proceeds gained from cybercrime have, in turn, spawned a complex web of money laundering networks spanning the globe.”
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