Saturday 10 March 2012

Interview with a Mugu in Paris


Every now and then, you see a media story about a gullible white woman or man who falls for one of these Nigerian scam emails. You wonder how people can be so stupid to fall for the emails. What you don't expect to happen to you is meet a live Mugu at Paris Charles De Gaulle on her way to Lagos to wed her scammer. My people, that was when I realised that there are PEOPLE in this world.

While sitting on an airfrance flight which had been delayed by close to 6 hrs (story for another day), I found myself talking to the oyinbo lady sitting in front of me.

Me: Hello, where are you heading to ( plane stops at Lagos and heads to port Harcourt.

Oyinbo: I'm going to Lagos to get married to my fiance

At this point, I'm still thinking okay, nothing unusual, internet love dey happen in this our 21st century. I asked a few more questions about America where she's from before I asked the one that my gbeborun mind has been gagging to ask....

Me: So how did you meet you fiance?

(people, please hold on to your seat belts oh)

Oyinbo: well, you see.....I won the lottery. I won $800,000 and my fiance was the one who contacted me about the money. He's been helping me over the past year to get my money out of Nigeria and we fell in love. So, I'm going to Nigeria to get my money and get married

Jesus wept! And I was instantly weak. Oyinbo mugu had paid $8000 already and she hasn't seen one cent back. $8000 in processing fees and to open an account where the money would be paid into. She showed me the card which allegedly comes with the account and people, no such bank exists in Nigeria. Even the card looked dodgy.

At this point, I looked at this middle aged excited naive white woman who was already halfway across the world on her way to getting fleeced in unforgiving Lagos. I didn't even know where to start so, I told her about the whole Naija scam scene. How its common knowledge that there is mo money waiting for people who fall into this trap. Oyinbo woman was quite adamant that this was legit. There was nothing I could have said to move this mountain. So, I gave her my number and we also exchanged emails.

What really tripped me about this story is how strong the woman was in her conviction that she was on her way to claiming $800, 000 even though she didn't play the lottery. In a country where white people are being kidnapped left right and center. With Boko haram also operating with impunity. She jets off to Nigeria still where she plans to marry a man she never met, doesn't know a soul other than the said fiance and claim money she never did a thing to win. The woman has some serious liver if you ask me. I did a silent prayer for her and told her to email me when she's back in the USA.

Not only has one Naija scammer scored, it looks like green card is also assured. God save my country!

3 comments:

TheRustGeek said...

Hate to sound callous, but I have to think such people deserve whatever they get..

Given the plethora of warnings and resources available to people who suspect they are getting fleeced, that people still fall for these scams has to say something about their gullibility/ stupidity..

Tolantino said...

@ Rustygeek: you'd think it was impossible right but talking to this lady revealed to me that there is a huge number of people who definitely don't follow world news or use the internet the way we know it to be used and these are the people who fall to be Mugus

Molara Brown said...

Mogbe, mugu of the highest order...but seriously she is also greedy, lottery that she did not play. I just hope she is not kidnapped oh, because wetin she wan do.