Internet fraud is a criminal activity that leads to the loss of funds of unsuspecting victims. It is one of the major atrocities that have left Nigerians with a nasty image and made most view this country as a nation of scammers. This is doing more harm than good.
How Can Internet Fraud Be Curbed in Nigeria?
To deal with this, we need to look at things from an infinite perspective. War on drugs has been going on in the US for years, but this isn’t stopping people from using it. The same scenario is what is happening in Nigeria. Internet fraud is not a finite problem that is likely to end in a few years, instead, it is something that will go on for years, so it’s the government’s job to find ways to fight it and give it no room to grow beyond how it is now.
1. Aggressive anti-corruption measures
This is the main problem. The level of corruption is high, so the things that should be taken care of are ignored. The technological development and budget allocation that should go into improving Nigeria are not in place, and this affects the citizens of Nigeria. The worse part is, the leaders that are supposed to do this are the corrupt ones.
So looking at things broadly, corruption is a crime, and internet fraud is a crime, so there is no difference between the leaders and the people they govern. This issue should be the first one they tackle.
2. Creation of more employment opportunities and better working conditions
What prompts most people to commit a crime is to improve their standard of living, and to survive in the Nigerian economy which is getting harsher as days go by. For this to happen, the budget allocation to provide for these shouldn’t be measly and the people behind the implementation should have integrity. In a nutshell, we need good scrutiny when carrying this out so it can be successfully implemented.
3. Severe punishment to offenders
Even though the terrible state of the economy is the major issue in the rise of internet fraud, we can’t rule out greed and laziness. Even in well-to-do countries, they also have their share of internet fraud (but not as prevalent as ours).
There will be Nigerians that are just greedy and lazy, so there has to be a punishment in place that will serve as a warning to others. Besides, when the fraudsters that the newbies hail as bosses are caught, and they lose everything including their freedom, it will serve as an eye-opener to them because that could be them tomorrow.
4. Better security
Nigeria needs to train its ICT personnel, so they can be a step ahead of the fraudsters because these fraudsters keep getting smarter every time due to their early exposure to new technology and software. We are lacking in so many industries, and sadly the security industry is one of them.
The moment we take this industry seriously and pay those working in the industry handsomely as well as implementing the use of the latest gadgets, then we can be able to track down more fraudsters.
5. Schools and the community involvement
The community and the school are two places a child spends most of his life, and it’s at these places that a child starts forming opinions and taking actions that will determine his future activities. So these two places can’t be ruled out because they have a huge part to play.
Elders in the community should look out for residents with shady dealings, and they should also look out for troublemakers because they are the most likely ones to influence others. Schools should educate their students about the harm that fraudulent activities cause.
6. Parents should educate their children
If the school and the community fail in playing their part, parents shouldn’t. Love and care should be given to children and they should be taught to differentiate good from the bad. The family is the first place a child learns his value, if you feed him with wholesome values that puts him on the right track, when he is out there, peer influence won’t easily sway him from the right part.
The only problem is that some parents are fraudulent in nature as well, then it’s the job of the community elders to put the child on the right part. This involves advising the child, and if necessary the child might have to be disciplined as well when he/she commits a crime.
Conclusion
All the solutions offered above go hand in hand. Ignoring one, and only focusing on the others will not give us the desired results, instead, internet fraud will keep getting worse. What needs to be done now is a fast implementation of the listed solutions so we can curb internet fraud before it ruins the country.