It’s a nightmare I will not easily forget in days to come, but I thank God for the understanding from my Facebook friends. I woke up on the morning of Tuesday, 14 January, feeling good and looking forward to being in the office to complete some tasks I left undone the previous evening because I could not do much at home using my computers as there was power outage.
So, this morning I got to the office and decided as usual to first check my emails, read newspapers online, and then check on my social media platforms for latest info. Then an email alert popped up on my iPad screen warning that my Facebook account has been compromised and that I should log in to secure it.I quickly tried logging in to Facebook but could not as my Facebook account had already been hacked into by hackers.
I spent the next thirty minutes trying to recover my Facebook account from the hackers and eventually succeeded in doing so. I was shocked to discover that so much damage had already been done. The hackers used my Facebook account over the night that I was offline to send messages to some of my friends asking them to send one thousand Naira or mobile airtime of any amount to them.
I was shocked at what I saw. How do I solve this problem? Was the next question that I pondered with. I decided to first of all secure my Facebook account and then get in touch with my friends by placing a disclaimer on my timeline, and which I did. I also sent out personal notes to all friends who received these satanic massages from the hackers notifying them about the development and asking them not to send funds out to anyone faking my identity as I did not send out such a request to them.
Unfortunately, some of my friends thought I sent out the messages to them and so, they sent recharge cards or funds to these fraud stars. I feel very sorry about this sad development and wish to apologize to all friends that parted with their hard earned money on the assumption that they were assisting a friend in need.
I have discovered that I am not the only victim that these criminal minds attacked on the internet but that there so many other victims out there whose social media and email accounts have been hacked into and their identities stolen by these criminals who have used these accounts to cheat others.
Having used the computer since its inception as a personal computer and it’s eventual usage as an internet tool, I’m conversant with the fact that criminal minds have perfected ways to criminally use the internet to fraudulently steal identities of others and to fraudulently steal funds from others.
This is not the first time my account on Facebook is being hacked into as after I wrote series articles condemning certain evil forces in our country in the past, my accounts on Facebook and Twitter have been hacked into on a number of occasions and death threats have been sent to me. However, such threats have not deterred me from speaking out against the devices of the devil in Nigeria.
One other issue is the fact that today in Nigeria, the political clime has become so intense with bitter fights for power and placing most of us who are against this method of doing politics on the firing line. Articles I wrote in the past condemning evil forces that are congregating in Nigeria in order to tear the country apart, have not gone down well with these politically bigots who are spiritually depraved and hence, the attempt to drag my reputation to the mud.
From these scenarios, it logically follows that since the efforts to intimidate me had failed, the next logical thing for these satanic agents to do is to want to rubbish my integrity. Unfortunately for them the scheme is a failure.
Now, these sad episodes about the way the social media is being used in Nigeria has brought to the fore, the need to take a critical look at ways in which these social media platforms are being used to commit crimes. Apart from the misuse of social media platforms, there are also crimes being committed on the cyberspace in Nigeria, cyber crimes that have become endemic to the point that the phenomenon has been globalized and has been christened as a Nigerian virus.
However, before taking a critical look at this crime in Nigeria let’s first get an understanding of what cybercrime is all about. Norton, a company that perfected ways of check mating the menace of cybercrime has this to say about the internet crime.
“Like traditional crime, cybercrime can take many shapes and can occur nearly anytime or anyplace. Criminals committing cybercrime use a number of methods, depending on their skill-set and their goal. This should not be surprising: cybercrime is, after all, simply ‘crime’ with some sort of ‘computer’ or ‘cyber’ aspect.
Norton also says, “Cybercrime has surpassed illegal drug trafficking as a criminal moneymaker.” And that: “Every 3 seconds an identity is stolen.” The fact is that, Norton says, “Without security, your unprotected PC can become infected within four minutes of connecting to the internet.”
In explaining what cybercrime is, Norton also defines the crime thus: “The Council of Europe’s Cybercrime Treaty uses the term ‘cybercrime’ to refer to offenses ranging from criminal activity against data to content and copyright infringement [Krone, 2005]. However, others [Zeviar-Geese, 1997-98] suggest that the definition is broader, including activities such as fraud, unauthorized access, child pornography, and cyberstalking. The United Nations Manual on the Prevention and Control of Computer Related Crime includes fraud, forgery, and unauthorized access [United Nations, 1995] in its cybercrime definition.”
Norton explains that cybercrime can be categorize into two categories. The first category of cybercrime it says is: “phishing, theft or manipulation of data or services via hacking or viruses, identity theft, and bank or e-commerce fraud.” The second category of cybercrime Norton says, Includes, “activities such as cyberstalking and harassment, child predation, extortion, blackmail, stock market manipulation, complex corporate espionage, and planning or carrying out terrorist activities.”
From the above definition of cybercrime and details provided it is clear that just as we use the internet for communications purposes, so also, criminals are in the cyberspace working hard too to wreak havoc on innocent users of the internet.
The other day I had cause to try explaining what cybercrime is all about while talking to some friends, I had to use this analogy. The cyberspace is just like a highway where various brands and models of vehicles travel. On the highways we have different road users. There are those who drive posh or exotic cars; Others drive trucks, while some others drive mini vans and commercial vehicles.
Now, because there are many commuters and travelers on the highways, criminal minds seize the opportunity of such huge number of persons on the road to rob these commuters and travelers. That is the reason you hear about armed robberies, kidnappings, and other criminal activities on our roads.
So also, just as there are criminal activities going on our our highways, so do we have criminal activities going in cyberspace. In the cyberspace, information from various channels and sources flow on the information super highway, that is the internet. And because of this, criminals also join the information super highway in order to steal data and Information that they use to enrich themselves.
The stealing of data or information is what is called data stealing, identity theft, or scam. Those who perpetrate these criminal activities are refer to as scammers, hackers, or in Nigerian parlance, “yahoo theft,” aka, 419.
These “yahoo yahoo” boys use the internet to steal in various ways. They can send spam emails to persons across the world deceiving them and making them to part with their monies. So also, they can steal your identity in order to to commit these crimes via the internet. And why do they shield themselves in order to commit these crimes, you may ask? It is simply to avoid dictation and possible prosecution, hence they have to use someone else’s identity.
The irony is that while these cyber crimes are committed, we have regulatory agencies established to checkmate such crimes in the country. In Nigeria, there are certain public agencies that have been vested with responsibilities to curtain crimes such as cyber crimes. But from our experiences, it appears that we still have a long way to go in curtailing these internet related crimes.
What is the National Communications Commission (NCC) doing in this direction, and what about telecommunications companies? What have they done with the registration of mobile phone users in Nigeria? We had thought that these measures were taken towards curtailing the menace of mobile and cyber crimes, and yet, we still have fraudulent individuals that are able to procure internet accessories and mobile phones that are internet enabled which they are using to fraudulent make innocent and hardworking Nigerians part with their monies.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) too was established as a public institution to fight such crimes in the cyberspace and in the telecoms sector. Yet, we still have these fraud stars operating from cyber cafés and using mobile lines obtained from telecoms companies operating in Nigeria to not only cheat Nigerians but also fraudulently deceive others from different parts of the world to part with their monies.
I am ashamed about the way some in this country do not find anything wrong in committing crimes. The image of our country has been so bastardized that Nigerians visiting other countries are viewed with suspicion everywhere. When would we shade this satanic tag and become the people God wants us to be?
Are we as a people not concern that almost every crime has now become a monopoly for Nigerians? When issues of terrorism are being discussed in the front-burner of international politics, Nigeria is always ahead of other countries. Why is this so? When they talk about terrorism you can be sure that reference would be made to Boko Haram, the Underpants bomber, and the terror attacks in the United Kingdom.
When it comes to political gangsterism, Nigeria is in the forefront, and when we talk about oil theft, there is no country that can compete with us. Or is it kidnapping? You can be sure that no country can stand against Nigeria, not even Italy with all its Mafiosi. What about human trafficking and corruption, na lie no country fit stand with Nigeria, because we no dey carry last. Haba my people, wetin dey worry us? Abi dem curse us? Is it that God has created us as a people to be this bad?
I believe that the time has come for all of us Nigeria to speak out against cybercrime. We cannot afford to remain silent when we have all been labeled across the world as a depraved nation in spite of the religionization of all facets of our lives in this country. Those who commit cyber crimes are not ghosts, because they live among us. We should make efforts by exposing such criminal minds amongst us. This should be our task if we truly desire to redeem our battered image.
Lastly, the EFCC and the telecoms companies should also take effective measures towards curtailing the activities of these cyber criminals by ensuring that they apply the necessary laws in regulating internet activities in Nigeria.
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