Shulou(Shulou.com)06/03 Report--

At the end of the year, fraud gangs have begun to prepare for the Spring Festival, and recently many online frauds are on the rise. Recently, when I was looking at the new types of online fraud, I found that the former African Internet fraud group "Yahoo Boy" (Ghanaian Internet fraud prisoners are called Sakawa) has been transformed and upgraded.

In the past, their routine was to send spam emails to netizens around the world saying, "I am a prince / princess of an African country in distress, and I can give you a huge amount of assets as long as you pay a small fee." It's 8012 years old, and this trick is out of date a long time ago, okay? )

However, with the development of the times, the fraud of "Yahoo Boys" has evolved into many "new versions of ships", and even began to "kill each other", and some people began to cheat "Yahoo Boys" out of their money.

In theory, "Yahoo boys" do a lot of harm, and if someone makes them make a fool of themselves or even be deceived, this kind of "anti-harvest" should be very happy.

However, things do not seem to be so black and white, and the "dark magic" that reaps the "forces of evil" is more bloody and bizarre than traditional fraud.

How did African fraud gangs become the pioneers of the times?

Yahoo Boy (and sakawa of the same nature) is a wonderful flower of the African continent in the Internet age.

The name is famous because of a large number of online frauds using Yahoo free mailboxes as a medium in Nigeria since 2000.

They are located in one of the few cities on the African continent where the Internet is relatively developed, and most of them have received secondary and higher education, but they are keen to cheat wealth through the Internet.

At first, they only captured the unknown netizens by sending spam in groups, and contributed a lot of wonderful stories and jokes to most people. The logic of the story as a whole is the same as "the rich woman asks for a son with a lot of money".

After being immunized by the public in this way, there is a higher level of "emotional fraud". Yahoo boys will sign up a lot of accounts on social networking sites, pretend to be rich and handsome or white, turn on the "repeater mode" to constantly flirt and take beautiful photos, keep getting closer to potential victims, and then keep asking him or her for money.

This kind of fraud full of "ingenuity" and "tenderness" (I'm really not ironic, and deceived white women tell EFCC not to arrest them because they make her happy), extremely painstaking efforts to test acting skills, but also need special snakeheads to provide them with food, accommodation and training, so that they can concentrate on deception, it still seems too inefficient.

As a result, Yahoo Boys have developed another new way of deceiving. Online shopping with stolen or forged credit card numbers, sending them to some people in western countries, and then getting money from them is called a "shopping scam".

Now, there is a mixed feeling of news that a small number of people have begun to "harvest" this group of frauds. In short, it is a scam that combines traditional African witchcraft-Yahoo plus.

It is said that if a "Yahoo boy" wants his fraudulent email to really work, he must ask a juju priest to enchant himself through a specific ceremony. Is this a mysterious supernatural force, or is it a coquettish operation of "black eating"?

No madness, no survival: the evil forces of harvesting Yahoo Boys

It also starts with the dilemma faced by Yahoo Boys.

Although "Yahoo Boys" will iteratively upgrade with the tide of the times and come up with new stories and new scams, on the whole, with the maturity of the Internet and the exposure of various cases, the success rate of "making up stories" fraud has become lower and lower.

As a result, many "Yahoo boys" find that they can't easily live a "happy life" like their predecessors who drive luxury cars and live in luxury houses. As a result, their "success anxiety" successfully attracted a group of swindlers holding high the "religious sickle" and started a witchcraft scam of cutting leeks.

This group of businesses that can manipulate supernatural forces to help "Yahoo boys" are known as "Yahoo +" (YahooPlus).

(a video shared by a Nigerian herbalist using evil and supernatural techniques to ensure the success of a "Yahoo boy" deal.)

They will first brainwash Yahoo Boys and encourage them to believe that they are engaged in a just and legitimate activity-"White people have robbed Africans, so we should use tools invented by white people (the Internet) and African traditions (witchcraft) to recover stolen wealth."

Then, the priests will "wish" the Yahoo boys the success of the fraud through special rituals, such as crazy dances, strange sacrifices (mostly blood, etc.), powder of unknown origin, etc.

Some priests will pray for Yahoo Boy's laptop, put it on some mysterious props, or kiss it.

Other ceremonies will be used for "Yahoo Boys" to communicate with fraudulent customers, such as putting horns close to their best while chatting, spraying olive oil on the keyboard, or killing a poultry for sacrifice.

In short, "Yahoo Boys" believe that through these rituals, they will be able to cheat more smoothly and achieve wealth and freedom as quickly as possible.

At present, it seems that they are already a little crazy before the freedom of wealth has been realized.

Some "Yahoo boys" were intimidated by these "Yahoo boys plus" who had mastered witchcraft, claiming that they had been cursed and could be safe only by constantly providing property.

Some even do not hesitate to kill their relatives to complete the Yahoo plus ceremony.

There are also innocent people controlled by this "witchcraft scam". After having sex with ordinary people, "Yahoo Boy plus" claimed that the other person had been controlled by himself and had to do what they asked.

Some were forced to sell original underwear, some were forced to take drugs, and some were abused and brutally killed.

Yahoo Boy plus has even launched movies and music to promote this get-rich-quick approach to attract more young people to join the game.

In addition to curiosity, perhaps the problem we should face up to is that whether it is the traditional version of "Yahoo Boys" or these technological witchcraft blooming "Yahoo Boys plus", most of them are college students. They are supposed to be the most knowledgeable and promising young people in the region, but they have also become evil hackers.

Many people think that Africa is the next new continent for the development of Internet technology, but can this place, which is already a fraud on the mainland, really become an imaginary hotspot for entrepreneurship?

Will Africa, where frauds are rife, be the next hot place to start a business?

At present, it seems that there are still many difficulties in mining Internet-rich mines in Africa, at least in terms of business and living environment.

Where fraud is rampant, there are two key factors: one is the low cost of crime, the other is the volatile economic environment.

The cost of cyber crime in Africa is too low, on the one hand, it stems from political unrest and imperfect social management system, and on the other hand, it also comes from the "mole", and many police officers themselves are also members of the tiger. Some "Yahoo boys" are caught and can solve the problem by paying a ransom to bribe the police. The police will also take the initiative to leave a reporting number for criminals caught and paying money, asking them to inform other fraud gangs in an effort to "generate income."

The turbulent economic environment can be reflected in the unemployment rate among young people. Nigeria, the birthplace of "Yahoo Boys", has an employment rate of only about 21%. A large number of young people with no skills have taken to the streets and have no other source of income except fraud. Making quick money has become the shortcut to success that they most desire. In such a market environment, it is obvious that there is a long way to go to cultivate the Internet audience healthily for a long time.

The basic situation predicted by the United Nations is that the population of Africa will double to 2 billion in 30 years' time. If they can all find jobs, they can become the dream country of the new economy by virtue of the demographic dividend. And if they cannot find a job, it will become the biggest source of despair and instability in Africa. At present, it seems that the latter is more credible.

Perhaps in addition to stepping up law enforcement, the local government should not form the illusion that "there is a demographic dividend after more births", but should devote itself to putting the labor force into production activities, so that more idle workers will not become a vassal of witchcraft and fraud.

All in all, there is still a long way to go for Africa to become a new entrepreneurial hotspot. If you want to go to Africa to tap new opportunities for getting rich, don't forget the old saying that wealth comes from risk.

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.