Page 4 - THENIGERIAPOLICEFORCE AND CYBERPOLICINGASYNOPSIS

scams were perpetrated on the physical space targeting foreigners who were interested in

shady deals in the Nigerian oil sector. Thereafter, scammers target businessmen in the west
and later the wider population (Longe, et al., 2009). Online advance fee fraud remains

endemic and increases explosively in Nigeria despite spirited law enforcement efforts to
control it (Ndubueze, 2017b).

Subsequently, the emergence of computer systems and the internet enhanced the ability of

419ners to notoriously lure people across the world in fraudulent scams via spam mails, cash
laundering, and emails, and cleverly designed but pretend company partnership offers

(Adesina, 2017). The popular title “419” as pointed out by Jack and Ene (2016) was named

after section 419 of the Nigerian Criminal Code (Capp 777 of 1990) that prohibit advance fee
fraud. In similar view, Quarshie and Odoom (2012) expressed that the malicious activities of

online advance fee fraudsters in African region were perpetrated by Nigerian scammers
through schemes such as fake lotteries, bogus inheritances, love (romantic) relationships,

investments opportunities and scammers promise an elusive fortune in exchange for
advanced payments etc.

Phishing

Phishing simply refers to theft of identity. It involves stealing personal information from
unsuspecting person(s). According to Markus and Steven (2007, as cited in Odo & Odo,

2015), phishing means a form of social engineering in which an attacker attempts to

maliciously retrieve legitimate user’s confidential or sensitive credentials by mimicking
electronic communications from a trustworthy or public organization in an automated

fashion. Similarly, Igwe and Ibegwam (2014) claimed that phishing scams (financial frauds)
involve a level of social engineering as they require the perpetrators to pose as a trustworthy

representative of an organization, especially bank. Phishing can also be described as
purporting to be from a popular social web site, auction site, bank, and online payment

processor or information technology (IT) administrator to lure unsuspecting persons. As

pointed out by Adesina (2017), the year 2015 has recorded high cases of phishing e-mails
from suspected Yahoo-Boys, peaking when the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced

deadline for Bank Verification Number (BVN). The extent of phishing scam in Nigeria is
described in Odo and Odo (2015) while noting the involvement of youth in this malicious

activity in tertiary institutions in Enugu. Phishing scams according to Ayofe and

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