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The word choices leave the trend in plain sight for anyone armed with the right keywords. It is a fraud — a tutorial and tips for anyone without access to information.
Over the past few years, Nigeria has battled with a wave of internet fraud allegations and investigations linked to its nationals.
In July 2025, international media went into a frenzy when it became public that Nigerians had impersonated the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee to steal up to $250,300 worth of cryptocurrency donations fraudulently.
The scam was perpetrated using a simple but effective tactic. The culprits employed email addresses that end in ‘@t47lnaugural.com’ with a lowercase ‘l’ as opposed to ‘@t47inaugural.com’ with a lowercase ‘i’.
This simple but effective tactic went undetected for a while until the money moved to a Binance account in the name of Ehiremen Aigbokhan, the lead suspect, who had a registered Nigerian address.
With this public record, the US government was able to trace the money and launch an official investigation.
Aigbokhan is not the only Nigerian to be credited with international cybercrime allegations.
Before his name came up in the press, there was Ramon Abbas, popularly known as ‘Hushpuppi’, an international fraudster whose Instagram activity led anti-fraud agencies to his network, ultimately resulting in his arrest.
After his arrest, details were revealed about how he attempted to steal £100 million from an unnamed Premier League Club.
Boasting a collection of designer items, Hushpuppi lived larger than life, posting his travel history and lifestyle on social media, while hiding his source of income.
Now, unlike before, internet fraudsters are all over social media. Their sources of income are, too.
Nigeria is home to a large network of international internet fraudsters who are increasingly becoming loud especially on social media. The ‘Nigerian prince’ gimmick has gained so much global notoriety that it features in anti-fraud discussions and even gets mentioned in movies.
Fraudsters pretend to be Nigerian princes with trust funds they cannot access. They then promise victims a share of this money in exchange for some immediate money they can use. When these victims send money, the extortion continues until the ‘prince’ either gets caught or the victim can no longer pay.
A movie with the same title was released on Netflix in the US on Oct. 19, 2018. It depicts how a Nigerian-American teenager who is sent to Nigeria against his will teams up with an internet scammer and plots his return to the US.
Such is the commonness of fraud techniques employed by young men and women who do them. What is more baffling these days is how the activities of these fraudsters are brazenly displayed on social media. This article tracks some of the popular methods and diction used by Nigerian internet fraudsters to help other fraudsters perpetrate the act, advertise their crafts or celebrate their wins.
Finding ‘Proof’
Sometime in May 2025, this reporter was on X when he stumbled upon posts containing images of people in hospitals, hospital documents, and other related items. Captioned in these posts were the words ‘Hospital proof’.
Tracking the commonness of this phrase, this reporter typed the words into X’s search bar on July 18, 2025, and the results were staggering. DAIDAC logged some posts that contained images, and references to ‘working boys’, ‘clients’, ‘bomb’, and other terms standard amongst fraudsters. Some of these posts can be seen here (archived here), here (archived here), here (archived here), and here (archived here).
In one of the archived posts (here) by @omowerey__ (here), X users appealed for help in purchasing an active Facebook page and regaining access to send messages on the platform.
Under another post (archived here), DAIDAC found users with Caucasian names speaking Nigerian Pidgin and asking about how to navigate fraud on Facebook.
DAIDAC also found one user, Samuel Gospel, advertising his willingness to perpetrate fraud on behalf of another. He says he can ‘bomb’ —a slang for sending multiple messages to multiple foreigners in the hopes that one responds and sends money to the fraudster, either because they believe this fraudster has a need and would refund the money, because they consider it an investment with future returns, or because they think they have found love.
He wrote in Pidgin English, “Who need boy to dey bomb for am? DM me on WhatsApp 0807187****”.
A July 18, 2025, snapshot of @Omowerey__’s X page contains posts in which the account shared images and text that fraudsters could use for their scams.
This page responded to @RubyRmayy143 by sharing images of a cracked iPhone screen. This was after @RubyRmayy143 asked, “Boss, please provide proof of the broken screen of your iPhone.”
On the same day, the account wrote in a separate post, “India client don pay me $10,000 before Allah but na investment.”
When the account posted, “Omo this Iran don tire me,” another account, @vipLarry_, responded (archived here), “Make una try chess, but you need sabi play the game.” Attached to this comment is a screenshot of a Chess application showing several usernames and the USA flag.
With over 29,400 followers, @Omowerey__ enjoys a sizeable following. When they posted, “What proof do you need?” there were no fewer than 34 comments on July 18, 2025. These comments came from anonymous users seeking images and tactics they could use to deceive victims.
Encounter with a fraudster
DAIDAC sent messages to some of these accounts promoting these schemes on X, but as of the time of this press, none had responded.
However, one of them, Samuel Gospel, responded on WhatsApp. After consulting with a self-proclaimed retired fraudster who requested anonymity, this reporter spoke in the lingo common among fraudsters and sent Gospel’s X post response to him. This post had his WhatsApp number and a request to work for other fraudsters.
This reporter asked, “You be working boy?” a term commonly used to refer to fraudsters. In response, Gospel said, “Yes.” When this reporter asked, “Which sites you de bomb?” He responded, “Na FB.” The term ‘bomb’ refers to the act of finding foreigners on a social media platform, adding them as friends, and sending them an introductory message.
Gospel then claims he has made N400,000 from scamming people via Facebook.
He pretends to be a pipeline contractor, bombs, and leaves his brother to continue the conversation with his clients (victims).
Via a voice note, he explains that he tells his victims he is a pipeline contractor. After conversing for a while, he tells them that a contract came through and that he would need money to clear it. He also revealed that he stays in Delta State.
Tracing ‘Proof’
DAIDAC subjected some of the pictures this account shares to a reverse image search using PimEyes, an online face search engine.
One image (archived here), the account says fraudsters can use to make victims believe they are suicidal, appears popular and has appeared on the internet over 222 times.
Another image from a post (archived here), captioned ‘Hookup coming over proof,’ uploaded on July 15, was subjected to a Google Lens reverse image search. DAIDAC found several results on Pinterest, including one from September 2024, which is among the oldest.
While running these images through reverse image searches, DAIDAC ran the keyword ‘Hospital Proof’ in Google’s search bar. Some results included ‘Hospital billing proof for client’; the first page had results that led to both Quora and Pinterest.
The Pinterest result provided suggestions, including ‘Accident proof’ and ‘Military proof,’ among others.
Parts of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention) Act, 2015 (Amended in 2024), criminalise cybercrime in its various forms. Section 14 of the Act criminalises various forms of cyber fraud, including unauthorised data manipulation, fraudulent electronic messages, and misrepresentation with the intent to defraud. Penalties range from three to seven years imprisonment and fines between ₦5 million and ₦10 million. Additionally, offenders who cause financial loss to banks or customers must serve prison time and also refund the stolen funds or forfeit equivalent property. Similarly, the Advanced Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act prohibits internet fraud.
In reality, many Nigerian youths are opting for internet fraud as a money-making avenue to fill the job gaps. As of 2023, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) pegged Nigeria’s unemployment rate at 33.3%, meaning one out of every three adults of employment age was unemployed. This methodology changed, and the NBS data now has the country’s unemployment rate colouring around 5%, reflecting a healthy employment data. This method has received criticism.
Social media platforms like X have policies to curb impersonation and deceptive content on their platforms, but these policies are silent on people promoting fraud that can occur outside their platforms.
On July 24, 2025, this reporter wrote to X’s Help Centre, detailing ‘Illegal and regulated behaviour’, and letting the platform know accounts were ‘Facilitating illegal activities’.
The platform replied with an automated response saying they were investigating the matter, and “will follow up as soon as possible”. A day later, the platform emailed to say they reviewed and determined that ‘There were no violations of the X rules in the content you reported’.
X’s response shows the platform has no policies against content like this.
Authorities know
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is vocal about the menace of cybercrime and its implications. Its Chairperson, Ola Olukoyede, raised this alarm on March 16, 2025, at an event to mark the 2025 International Day of the Boy Child, held at the National Merit Award House.
“Cybercrime has become a pervasive threat, with far-reaching consequences. Young people, particularly boys, are vulnerable to its allure, often driven by financial gain, peer pressure, or a desire for excitement. The criminal dimension to cybercrime and the global resentment and outrage over its effects on humanity demand that we all rise to treat it as a problem needing urgent solutions,” he said.
A year earlier, the University of Oxford published a Cybercrime Index ranking Nigeria fifth, behind only Russia, Ukraine, China, and the USA in terms of cybercrime threat levels.
Associate Professor Jonathan Lusthaus, who co-authored the report, said, “Due to the illicit and anonymous nature of their activities, cybercriminals cannot be easily accessed or reliably surveyed. They are actively hiding. If you attempt to use technical data to map their location, you will fail, as cybercriminals bounce attacks around the global internet infrastructure. The best way we have to draw a picture of where these offenders are located is to survey those whose job it is to track these people.”
EFCC spokesperson Dele Oyewale told DAIDAC that the anti-graft agency was aware of these tactics and was trying to curb them.
“All these fraudsters always perfect new skills and ways of defrauding the public,” he said. “These things, impersonation and obtaining under false pretences, we are aware of and on top of them. Whenever we have cause to make an arrest, we always do.
“Internet fraud goes beyond what the public considers it to be. This is internet fraud. They do it on the internet, sending it to foreigners, which defames the country’s image. Our dragnets are wide. We are on top of it, and we have handled such cases before. Everything borders on impersonation, obtaining under pretences, and tarnishing the country’s image. We are on top of it. We have made arrests, and we will still do more.”
While the anti-graft agency repeats its stance against internet fraud, newer technologies and social media anonymity contribute to the boldness of these fraudsters. Unless stricter and swifter consequences for these crimes are imposed, the online tips could foster a wave of more Nigerians picking up free lessons and beginning their journeys into the world of crime.
