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In Nigeria, surviving has become a skill in itself. The cost of living continues to rise, opportunities seem limited, students are stuck in their respective tertiary institutions beyond their degree allocated time to graduate due to academic activities being suspended, graduates are unable to secure a gainful employment, and frustration is visible on many people’s faces. For many young Nigerians, the question is not simply how to generate money, but how to do it quickly. In this desperation, something dangerous is developing silently and persistently. It is called Digital Fraud. Digital fraud is no longer only a cybercrime issue, it is an economic problem. We like to talk about scammers as a group of morally isolated individuals who wake up every day to deceive others. But if you look closely, you will notice that many of the people behind online frauds are not complete strangers. They’re students, relatives, friends, neighbour and young people who are attempting to make it in a system where they feels it is rigged against them.
In a world where a few clicks can create untraceable income, the line between what is right and wrong begins to disappear. Almost every week, a new scam emerges, fake investment, hacked website, or a stolen social media account. Back in the early 2000s, cybercrime was largely committed in cafés, with young boys crowding around monitors, purchasing midnight browsing tickets, sending messages and emails to potential victims. But that age is over. Today, all you need is a smartphone and some data. Internet scammers are freely operating discreetly from the comfort of their homes today. The tactics may change, but the goal remains the same. Today, it is hard to make end meet, money is hard to come by, and people wake up to the disappointing news of billions of naira being misappropriated daily by political elites. The internet appears to be the only area where the rules do not automatically benefit the wealthy.
Many people refuse to acknowledge that poverty can force people to bend their morals. When it is combined with skill, access to technologies, cloned websites, fake accounts generators, you get a new kind of fraud that does not resemble the Yahoo Yahoo of the past. It is more refined now, less noisy and more camouflaged. Some call it hustling while others term it a crime but whatever you call it, the fact is that economic hardship is fueling it.
The internet has become a two-edged sword. On one hand, it provides a road to advancement, learning, and a legitimate wage. On the other hand, it provides shortcuts that are riskier, faster, and sometimes more rewarding in the moment. And as the nation’s economic hardship continue to reach a new low, people are unable to afford basic necessity, and every honest effort fails, that darker path becomes less of a danger and more of an escape.
We need to stop handling cybercrime as if it were a tech issue. This is a social problem and an economic problem. Until we address it at its root with improved education, employment support, and clear legal repercussions, we will continue to lose bright minds to the wrong hustle.
It is not about instilling fear or humiliation, it is all about creating options because when people don’t see a future, they’ll create one by any means necessary, even if it means sacrificing someone else happiness. We cannot fix this overnight, but we can begin by changing the conversation by looking beyond the headlines and questioning why so many people believe that fraud is the only remaining source of income. As a solution, systems that reward patience, honesty, and talent should be created.
In conclusion, behind every phishing email, hacked accounts, online scams, there is a story of someone attempting to escape poverty. And until we do a better job of caring for our young people, digital fraud will continue to rise not only as a crime, but also as a response to a broken system.
.Adesola, Security+
Cybersecurity Analyst
Email: yemiadesola@gmail.com
