Police: Everyone should be wary of love on social media
The above is the voice of 22-year-old Falope Oluwole Israel. Shockingly, he is just a 100 level part time student of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ), Ogba, Lagos. He confessed to have been in the crime of defrauding people through social media sites for over two years. According to him, he had defrauded over 33 men, while posing as a lady on instagram.
Cases of unsuspecting Nigerians falling into the hands of killers, thieves and scammers on the internet, while searching for love is escalating, so much that the police have become alarmed and worried.
Just this week, the RRS on its Facebook handle, warned Nigerians to be wary of love on the internet.
RRS said: “If you have a teenage daughter or son, please lend us ears. If you are a bachelor or a spinster, please, let us reason together. If you are a single parent or a divorcee, this issue concerns you. If you are married and still ‘exploring other fertile grounds’ you might need to watch it. If you are a guardian, you need to read this and start guarding well. Our society and its evolving hi-tech are throwing up weird crimes, crimes that are alien to our clime. These are moments we all need to start exercising caution and think well before you click.”
Nigerians wouldn’t forget the story of Cynthia Osokogu, who was killed in a hotel at Festac by someone she met on the internet. Nigerians appeared not to have learnt any lesson from the murder of Osokogu, as many, day and night, continued to trawl the internet, searching for love.
The young man, Israel would have continued with his scam, laughing all the way to the bank every day, if not for the intervention and his eventual arrest by operatives of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), Ikeja, Lagos State Police Command.
Israel was arrested after weeks of close surveillance and trailing by RRS detectives. The young man was alleged to have scooped so much money from victims trawling for love on the internet, that he was able to mark his birthday at Hard & Rock, Lekki, Lagos, where he spent over half a million naira on just foods and drinks.
RRS detectives started investigating Israel’s activities on social media after it received a complaint about an Instagram handle @blackberbiedoll, used for criminal activities, which was later traced to him.
The police disclosed: “Apart from @blackberbiedoll, which the suspect prominently used for fraudulent activities, he maintained @froshwhite007 and @froshwhite separately for same purpose.”
One of Israel’s victims, simply identified as Bernard explained that he got sucked into the scam after he received a friend request from @blackberbiedoll.
Bernard said: “The picture on the account was that of a lady. The lady in question messaged me on BBM. Honestly, I thought I was chatting with a woman who claimed to be in Nigeria at the time. ‘She’ lied to me that her father was a Nigerian and her mum, a Kenyan. At a point, she lied that she was building a beauty outfit in Ikota Shopping Mall, VGC and that she was in need of some money to complete the mall. I had to transfer N1million to her. Weeks later, I grew suspicious of the account name Olawole Israel Oluwaseun Falope. I ran a search on Google, and then discovered it was all scam. Immediately, I reported the incident to Instagram and that account was blocked.”
Revealing how he perfected the scam, Israel said: “I got several pictures of Shayla, a pretty United States based lady on my profile. Since then, men have been disturbing me and calling to request for a date. What I do is that I assess people based on their appearance on Instagram, add them and thereafter open conversations with them before I start bringing up all manners of stories in order to dupe them. At a point, I lied to most of them that I had an accident and that I lost my Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) Card. Some of them were generous enough to drop money into my account. Those that I have collected money from can’t be more than 33.”
It was also discovered that Israel used to claim to be a friend of Toke Makinwa, Tonto Dike, Don jazzy, Peter Okoye, Toyin Aihmaku, Tee Y Mix, Oristsefemi, Timaya, Sean Tizzle, Dami Adenuga, Femi Otedola, Mike Adenuga jnr, Ramsey Noah.
There is also the case of Michael Atanda 35, who threatened to expose nude pictures of four ladies on the social media if they failed to pay certain amount of money into his account.
Atanda, a Computer Science National Diploma Holder of a popular computer school based in Ikeja, was arrested by RRS detectives after five days of baiting and monitoring.
Atande, described as an ex-convict, is a father of three. He confessed to have money from four ladies after issuing out the threat. After collecting the first payment, Atande, like most blackmailers do, went back to each of the ladies, demanding for more money.
Atande, who bears the name Segun Bayo on Facebook, disclosed that he went about adding several ladies on Facebook. He said that after weeks of adding them as friends, he would start chatting with them.
He said: “The profile picture on my Facebook account is that of a guy based in London, and so as part of my introductions to ladies, I tell them that, I am a Construction Engineer and that my parents and I live in Europe. After sometime, I would lure them into sexual conversations during which, I persuaded them to send their nude pictures to me. They would, and I would send mine to them too. Before that, I would pretend that I was seeking a serious relationship with them, and that very soon, I would be coming to Abuja on a business trip, during which I would see them.
“I would again feign my seriousness by calling them with the aid of computer software that transforms my Nigerian line into an international line. Meanwhile, I would warn them that I was calling through a public phone booth. As soon as they have sent their nude pictures, I would come up with all manners of stories. And begin to extort and blackmail them. I was jailed last year in a similar circumstance after I fraudulently collected from a lady I met on a dating site. I was eventually bailed, but the case is still pending in the court.”
He further confessed to have defrauded one Funmilola, Motunrayo, Joy and Lizzy.
RRS said: “Aside from Lizzy, who reported the incident but declined to press charges, three other suspects, who were discovered during investigations, acknowledged on phone calls they had been paying the suspect so that he wouldn’t leak their nude photographs online. Investigators have reached out to more victims after checking the suspect’s Facebook conversations with a number of ladies. All of them have refused to come forward, after confirming they were paying the suspect.”
RRS further noted: “We have heard the story of Cynthia Osokogu’s killers in a hotel in Festac. We are happy the killers had their judgement. You might also be probably familiar with how Samuel, a 29 year old Custom officer living in Ogba, Lagos who invited a female friend he met on Badoo dating site to his residence, drugged, raped and videotaped her naked. Whenever he wanted to have sex, he would call her. If she refused his advances, he would threaten to post the clip on the social media.”
Sometime in September last year, Shade, after listening to a late night dating programme agreed to meet her blind date in Ikeja. Before this, they had communicated back and forth on phone. On the said date, her ‘boyfriend’ bought her drinks. Unknown to Shade, her date had a new fascination beyond her. He sent Shade to get more drinks. Before Shade came back, the supposed ‘boyfriend’ had absconded with her two mobile phones.
“We are not concluding that Badoo and Facebook are bad social media platforms. We must expose these cases for us to learn and exercise caution when it is required,” noted RRS.
Let’s not forget the case of Jaiye, 52, who met Bunmi on Badoo dating site. After few months, Bunmi thought of relocating to the USA. She confided in Jaiye, who encouraged her to surrender her N1.4million for visa and another N50, 000 for passport processing. Jaiye would later disappear with all Shade’s property.
The police said: “When questioned by the police, Jaiye started singing how many times he had slept with Bunmi and all he knew about her. Taking undue advantage of others is not limited to dating platforms, even in our religious groupings, it found a great footing.”
Reacting to the warning from the Police, a Linus Okoroji said: “Good to expose crimes like these! Many innocent young men and women are so naive and carried away by this their trending dating! I cannot understand it! Worse hit are ladies when they feel frustrated about marriage, at certain age, they could fall to any prey! Young men and women should be disciplined, obedient to their parents and elder and be humble and responsible; listen to God! There lies the answer!”
Adeniyi Oluwabusayo noted: “I think the next set of people to go after are the ones using Sports & Gaming to dupe people. Their trick is simple, they open a page on FB, get a winning ticket, (if they can't, they Photoshop and cover the bet slip), post it on the page and ask you to join by subscribing with a substantial amount. As soon as you pay, they either give you a fake game or tell you that their source have not supplied them with the games and after a while, they stop using the phone number or they just block you. How to nab them? The account number they used for the collection of the Money. The phone number, at least it's registered to a person. Screenshots chat history or recorded call from the complainant and other forms that may not be stated here.”
Popoola Albert said: “In this day and age, social media constantly surrounds us. People are always on their phones or laptops updating statuses, posting pictures, liking things, and messaging back and forth with friends. Although social media is extremely beneficial in several ways, it does have a negative impact on mental health, which we must be extremely careful of, because of the dynamics of online crimes in our society. This is call for caution for social media users.”
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