FINANCIAL NETWORKING SCAMS SEMINAR OF ADWOC AT ST. MARK’S ANGLICAN CHURCH, AGULUZIGBO

His Grace, The Most Revd. Alexander C. Ibezim PhD, Archbishop, Province of the Niger & Bishop, Diocese of Awka

Mrs. Martha Chioma Ibezim M. Ed
(Nneoma, Mama Awka, Mama Province)
Provincial President MU, WG & GG
President, ADWOC

Other Protocol duly observed

Introduction:

I am extremely grateful to our dynamic Provincial President Mrs. Martha C. Ibezim M. Ed for extending this invitation to us. The Lord shall continue to prosper His works in your hands in Jesus mighty name.

We thank God for the privilege to be trained in different places and by various experiences in investments, finance and funding. We thank our Archbishop Most Revd. Alexander C. Ibezim PhD Archbishop Province of the Niger and Bishop Diocese of Awka for opportunities and exposures in ministry.

The Lord shall continue to prosper His works in your hands in Jesus mighty name.
The theme of this talk: CHALLENGES OF FINANCIAL NETWORKING SCAMS IN NIGERIA is a growing concern for the families, the church and the society at large. We shall seek to unmask some dangerous fake and fraudulent sugar coated financial opportunities targeting women, churches and families such as networking, bets and high paying deposit schemes etc and proffer ways of overcoming the scams and redeeming the image of women, churches and families.

Definition of Terms:
Networking Marketing: The Original concept of Networking Marketing is a legitimate business based on providing people with real, legitimate products they need and want at a fair price. It involved buying product like milk as a distributor and selling them (marketing) as fast as possible and taking your percentage from the sales. The financial benefits are directly proportional to the dedicated efforts of the marketer in sells of real products and services. That is the innocent concept.

Networking Marketing Pyramid Scheme: The Networking marketing business in Nigeria has be dominated by pyramid scheme where people invest money based on the promise that other people will put in money that will filtrate back to them and somehow they will get rich. You enter the system through registration of N10,000, when you register up to five people under you, you shall be rewarded with N20,000 and the chain continues in that order. Your target is to get others to enter the scheme and you shall be growing as more people are joining the scheme under you and the scheme shall continue to reward those bringing others to register under them.

In older cases, no business is involved. It was just money changing hand. Modern day pyramids may have a product as a cover up but it is just disguise foe money game.
Note: The first group that start any network usually benefit as a bait for other who will lose to troop in. What we shall establish in this talk is that few shall win for many to loose in almost every networking scheme.

Past Experiences of the rise and fall financial network scams:
a. Umana Okon Umana: We were in Aba in the 1980s. One of the remarkable history of financial scam that affected every sector was “Follow Who Know Road” by Umana O. Umana. The man Umana Okon Umana in the mid 1980s opened a booming Umana bank in Aggrey Road Port Harcourt that paid 100% interest to depositors after 4weeks. It was during the Military leadership of General Ibrahim B. Babangida. He lasted for more than 6months with people rushing from Aba and all the eastern and southern region of Nigeria to make deposits in his bank at Port Harcourt. People were withdrawing their funds from banks to invest in the booming Umana Bank. It attracted over one million people including the rich and the poor, Military and civilians, Pastors and members, businessmen and women, youths and people from all manner of life. It was nicknamed Follow Who Know Road. The business developed k-leg one morning with army filling everywhere in Port Harcourt. Military came and arrested him and moved him to Abuja and the scheme collapsed without explanation till date. People lost their fortune.

People never knew that Umana was parking their invested money in a separate house and using the money of new investors to pay old investors. It was a scam.

b. Rising of Several Scams: When Umana closed, in 1980s and 1990s, many scams came out such as Ibu Alhaji, OBT, duping and other 419s.

c. Money Trees: Around Year 2000, the Money Tree scheme came out and targeted influential and opinion leaders. Their targets were influential Priests pastors, traditional leaders. They registered with N5000 and were given gifts like Cars, cash rewards and people rushed to register as they see the Pastors using their branded Cars and gifts as bite for vulnerable people. I will always remember about 20 years ago, when my bishop was cautioning the Archdeacon in the Cathedral to avoid greedy appealing offers that exposes church members to scams. It was not long, the scheme that rewarded the Cathedral Archdeacon collapsed and the people parked away overnight with investors’ funds.

d. Networking: In 2005-2006, a particular Networking scheme that centered in churches started in Abuja and focused on the Priests and the Church. I do not know how they convinced the church Father and door was opened for the Priests to engage in networking for easy and quick returns. One of the Anglican Priest from Kubwa brought it to the north and started marketing it as God sent means to help the priest with direct 40 percent payment every month. Many pastors and members joined the scheme and it paid for more than a year and collapsed as the man from the West controlling it for them ran away claiming police was after them due to non-registration. They promised to return every investor’s money. The young Priest from Kubwa who did everything without success to convince me died due to the collapse of the scheme as he was handling over N500 millions investments for Dioceses, churches and individuals in the scheme that collapsed and the people started pushing him for their money. He died a poor man.
e. Forex Trading: The scheme of Forex trading started after the collapse of the networking business. People started trading using people and blindly many lost in the processes and many unfaithful people hijacked Forex trading with its signs everywhere for training and trading. My personal research on the Forex trading then led me to banks. We had very big access to bankers and banks because we were pasturing New Generation Faith Anglican Church Gombe with many bank workers and Zonal Bank Managers.

We discovered that Nigeria banks such as Intercontinental Bank PLC had trained personnel trading for them on FOREX with powerful monitoring room and monitoring systems. Those who can trade on their own and with limited controlled partnership are still prospering.
Let me warn that Forex trading has remained one of the leading means of financial scams and duping of people especially groups posing to trade for others. This has continued to be an open door for scams. MBA Forex failed in December, 2020 just like others.

f. FADAMA Cooperative: There was another group called FADAMA Cooperative that promised 20% profit on investment every month. People invested N100, 000 and were going to collect N20,000 monthly. They lauded it as another blessing from God that will be paying allowances for life. Priests and clergy wives became agents. I discovered from the FADAMA the powers of Clergy wives in mobilizing others for investment. Unfortunately, it was another scam. It faded over time and people lost their money.

g. Supplement Drinks/ Networks Products: The new wave of supplements started in 2000s with promise of percentage profit in sales of product. They latter migrated into money chain with registration and invitation of people to register under you. Some have faded away while some are still operating with top members showing off abroad visits for holiday and other incentives to lure youths to be loitering everywhere in the name of looking for customers to recommend product for and people to join their ladder for them to climb to higher level. This particular group can be very dangerous because they indoctrinate followers and make them fools. Clergy wives, Home & Abroad meetings and women leaders have become major target of these trading networks. And those that can convince a Bishop’s wife have hit a gold mine.
h. MMM: It is a pity that the 419 scheme that was used to defraud people in Russia in 1990 was repeated in Nigeria in 2017 and Nigerians fail victim and were duped beyond measure. Economic stress, recession and greed have remained major factors that promote financial scams. The name came from the initials of the Surnames of the three Russian founders Mavrodi Sergei, Melnikova Olga and Mavrodi Vyachestav with the first of them as ex-convict. During Economic recession in Russia, Sergi Mavrodi used MMM pyramid scheme to defraud millions of Russians their savings in 1990s. He tried getting immunity by becoming member of the House. But was convicted and jailed for fraud.

MMM was a financial pyramid and a typical Ponzi scheme in which early investors received profits from subsequent investors with promise of 25% to 75% profit monthly as well as lotteries and bonuses for investors. As soon as the number of new clients stopped growing, the pyramid collapsed with over 10million Nigerians as victims. Unfortunately, the founder died sometime ago.
i. Micro-Finance Banks: There was a group from Abuja that claimed they have government fund coming for groups. They will form Micro-finance bank, get people to register in them and sign loan papers and pay certain amounts for their loans to be processed. (They targeted Anambra, Enugu, Imo, Ebonyi, for mass registration.) We had to run independent investigations to discover and prove their fraudulent tracks but intelligent people never believed us but were prey in their hands. Poor masses registered with N1000each. Many of their victims paid for seminars and workshops, went for trainings in Onitsha, Owerri and Awka and were later confirmed duped. Thank God Diocese of Awka escaped it but there were Dioceses that became victims.

j. Virtual and digital Currency: Another major financial risk is the virtual and digital currency. This is youth, internet friendly and quick rich related business with unguarded risks of 100% loss. Nigerians are convinced to trade on online money that you cannot see or touch except on internet. Trading with Bitcoin became so popular in Nigeria that people rushed to it like a heaven in investment. Central Bank of Nigeria in February, 2018 issued a circular saying that Crypto currencies are not legal tenders in Nigeria. Dealers and investors in any kind of crypto currency in Nigeria are not protected by law as such their investment can disappear overnight. Unfortunately, Nigerians ignored the warning from CBN. In February, 2021 CBN reestablished her stand against the risky Crypto currency trade and investors are currently struggling with their investments which will definitely fall and eventually collapse in the future because exchangers can collapse or close business at any time, consumer may lose their money without any legal redress, virtual currencies are not legal tenders in Nigeria and in the world, and there are high risks of loss inherent in such financial activities.
k. Bets: Pools that were hated in the 80s and 90s were rebranded into European Leagues fans and gradually introduced as betting games. This is one of the greatest evil in the life of Nigerian youths today. Every available fund in the hands of our youth is used for gambling called game including school fees, business fund and loans. The love for foreign football and the exposure to their club names were subtle craftiness of the white and back partners to take our younger generation back to the evil days and pattern of pool agents that destroyed our grand fathers in the 1970s and 80s. Mothers must stand against betting to take away Nigeria has record of several of the betting companies from Betnaija, Betbingo, nairabet.com etc. Every Woman must run away from every link to betting. Betting is like hard drugs that once any person gets involved, it becomes addiction. Using Church money and women ministry fund for betting is the highest form of scams.

l. Lotto: The lotto games called Baba Ijebu is a killer financial game. People who are entrapped by them become slaves to it. You must run away from it.
m. Advance-fee fraud: The advance-fee scam is a form of fraud and one of the most common types of confidence tricks. A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. It exploits victims using their credulity, naiveté, compassion, vanity, irresponsibility and greed.
Advance-fee scam typically involves promising the victims a significant share of a large sum of money, in return for a small up-front payment, which the fraudster claims will be used to obtain the large sum. If the victim (mugu) makes the payment, the fraudster either invents a series of further fees for the victim or simply disappears. Using Church money and women ministry fund for sweet mouth investments is the highest form of scammers net. Promise of using the money under your care to make profit and return after interest is temptation from pit of hell.

(Share experience of people calling for special gifts and the victims by women, Pastors etc)
There are many variation of this type of scam including: 419 name after the Nigeria criminal code against the advance-fee scams/crime, Ibu Alhaji, OBT (Obtaining By Tricks).

n. Yahoo Yahoo: The advance-fee scams in Nigeria at the dawn of internet migrated into online scams. They operated through sending of emails and message appa such as WhatsApp, SMS etc. The are are often to as Yahoo Yahoo. The scammers open online businesses, companies and investments using phones and laptops in targeting their victims.

The first wave of Nigerian 419 scammers were uneducated criminals.
The second group comprised young educated who were frustrated by lack of formal jobs. The noticed the uneducated scammers accumulating wealth and esteem, and decided to join them.

The third group is a batch that simply admired the scammers. They had observed the scammers establish legitimate businesses from fraudulent funds and become respected philanthropists or politicians in Senior Leadership positions. Many young Nigerians consider scamming a career path and a valid source of income. There are instances of Yahoo Yahoo training school with Proprietor and students being taught skills to carry cyber fraud.

The latest groups of Yahoo Yahoo are dangerously Ritualists that can kill anybody and do anything to make money. We see repeated cases of girls coming out of their flashy cars and running mad. There are so many of them that are mad now because their charms and processes failed. Yet, many people are trooping into it despite the failures.
Finally, return on investments in Nigerian businesses and other financial instruments have fallen drastically under the present administration. Any investment offering returns above 5% – 10% benchmark must be weighed with all consciousness devoid of greed.
The truth is that people see women ministry as better source of fast money in the church than any other group because of your repeated successes in Mothering Sundays and other women programs.
Scammers and fraudsters are getting extremely smart and intelligent. They have, as well, moved deeper into rituals occultism and untold evil practices. Unfortunately, they are near us than we expect. They walk and work closer to us and people with financial connection and links.
Financial scammers exhibit lifestyles that attract people to them. They are often full of ingenuity and audacity that enables them to swipe with ease the victims of their valuables. Women are too vulnerable and most victims of financial scams from some of your children and husbands that quickly double-cross your monies, it graduates into other areas of life.

Financial networking increases during economic recession. It prospers during recession and in the poor economic state as we are faced in Nigeria. The fraudsters target the flow of money and they target those handling money. It makes women leaders very vulnerable. The financial scammers can come through your relatives, church members, colleagues in the diocese, marital relationship, Home & Abroad Women.
Hence, there is need for every clergy wife, women leaders and financial handlers to be more prayerful, more sensitive and more careful in dealing with all people.

By the grace of God you shall overcome in Jesus name. I am grateful to His Grace and Mama Province for this noble privilege. We are truly grateful.
Thanks for your time and this great opportunity.