Why do so many catfishing scams come out of West Africa? BBC Africa

Romance scams happen all around the world, but West Africa has been mastering the art for decades.

Nowadays, Nigeria and Ghana have become synonymous with catfishing: pretending to be someone you're not online as part of a romantic or financial scam.

Hannah Ajala, presenter of the podcast Love, Janessa, explores how West Africa became the birthplace of the romance scam.

#catfishing #bbcafrica

[lancecahill]

People get scammed because they are desperate for romance.

[salbkbatlitec]

The funny thing you and your guest went through a list of a number of countries but never to mention India, the king of them all . I think BBC is afraid of getting kicked out of India after the raid.

[brucewilson]

We need to remember...Nigeria has 200 Million Citizens. Huge. Also, in the 1960s a Nigerian group was formed called The Black Axe. It started out as young black intellectuals. Networking and Socializing. But over time it became criminal and money scams were a big part of that.

[raphaelledesma]

One more thing and I hope many people read this. One modus they do is to “send” you a gift but then claim the gift is stuck in customs and you need to pay for it to reach you. I was nearly scammed this way but I already had suspicions and I resolved never to give personal information that couldn’t be found publicly in my social media profiles. Person started asking for my address then I told the person that “no, I don’t want to give you my address. If you want to keep talking, that’s fine but this is my boundary for someone who I have never met in person.” Then I was being gaslit as to why I couldn’t trust him and stuff. He finally audio called me (guy was using a a Korean person’s profile) and kept insisting and it was so annoying. I told him that if he can’t respect my boundaries then we’re done. I dropped the call and blocked.

[dennykeaton]

Its not just Nigerians, but in almost every case on Catfish it turns out to be a Nigerian.

[iidjkg]

Simple solution. Stop trying to date people who live in third-world countries that have a very high rate of poverty, otherwise it's just common sense that they will eventually ask you for money as they preceive you as being somewhat rich if you are from a 1st world country. Even if the person you are talking to is genuine, they will most likely still ask you for some money at some point.

Another thing is it does not matter if the person you are talking to is able to prove their identity on a video call or provide you with a legit form of identification, they will eventually still ask you for money. Also, some of these scammers operate in groups. So it's possible that the person who is messaging you is a man while pretending to be a woman, but then if you request a video call he will get someone else he knows (a female to do the videochat with you).

[shoshoreal]

One sign to look out for is that most of the scammers speak bad or broken English with fake accents

[grnpeepers]

Angela Deem from "90 Day Fiance" should see this!🤣

[WalkOverHotCoal]

As a man, one of the things I would never do is to ask a woman for money. I had a girlfriend who came from a rather wealthy family. I was on the opposite scale, I was struggling to make ends meet while going to university. She offered me money, and I declined. That is the red line I don't want to cross because as soon as I did that, all semblance of being a man is lost.

So for a woman who is silly enough to get emotionally attached to a man who asked, and even demanded money from you, then you picked the wrong man. Man like that has no dignity, let alone being decent.

[TuneinR]

Payback to Slavery is not convincing enough but satisfactorily dodgy.

[anndeecosita]

I don’t “meet” people online. If I don’t know you or know someone who knows you, don’t go into my DMs or send me friend requests. That means you are instantly deleted and BLOCKED.

[suzijorgensen]

Oh boy, I am the stereotypical victim of these scammers...to a point. I actually had lots of face time with a younger man. I actually flew to Accra, Ghana and met him and his family, met his friends. However, when I flew back home he started asking me fòr money.. I'm to ashamed to say how much l sent. It's been a heartbreaking experience. I blocked him but for about 10 years, he's tried over and over again to fool me into the same trap. I've HAD IT! NEVER AGAIN WILL HE come back into my life and strip me bar

[diananswana]

My aunts fall for this every time. And they get excited about some white person having an interest in them. They get all happy that they're finally with a white man! And all the time I keep telling them it's a scam! They realize this after their supposed lover asks them for money. And most times they would have already sent the money and when you try to ask them about how the relationship is going they are ashamed cause they now admit I was right and they have been scammed. Though these days they are now aware. Elder people are usually the ones who are easily wooed

[bandittrue]

To be safe just don't date on line period.

[peacelover]

Reverse image search is new to me am gonna make good use of it...

[westcoastbred]

This is what I've wanted to know for years

[medusagorgon]

This would never work on me. I'm so suspicious naturally. If anything is even remotely 'off' no matter how slight I would be out!😅

[mildredpierce]

The slavery excuse is just that, an excuse. You don’t pay back evil with evil. Scammers are evil.

[MrIbadanBoy]

Quite obvious who runs the "BBC Africa".. Looking for catchy titles.
You come around tagging catfishing to west Africa.. It happens everywhere tbf.

When people can't seem to afford just the 3 basic needs of life, they'll do just about anything to survive..

Its sad truly when people fall victims, but i guess life has never been fair, we've all been cheated or scammed in one form or the other..

Please promote awareness so people falling for their tactics decrease rather than blame it on a people.. We have lots of hardworking and law-abiding west Africans as well doing great things.

[abby-a]

If this video is about how you can get scammed by other people in other countries besides west Africa well then why did they titled it like this??