Watchlist

[lordcenon]

I don't know if this is right to say, by due to one of the posting made by trueSpy, I like to ask if this is true that Nigerians are mostly behind popular scams.

If this is so, I would therefore like to submit a watchlist to our government for all Nigerians coming to our country or already are. This is just the same as asking, who started or mostly involved in terrorism...is religion have a bearing on that? like, who is Bin Laden, who is Sadam? so, likewise with scams...what is the population rate for those captured or suspected scammers?

Of course, not all, but by putting a red alert for incoming visitors to countries, it is easier to put a watch list on these guys, not discounting that there are locals doing the same...just asking for possibility?:cool:

[Nyla]

That approach would probably not have any impact on internet scams. Percentage-wise, yes, a majority of email-based scams are sent from Nigeria and other countries in West Africa, the last time I checked the statistics. Nigerians are probably the most visible and most associated by nationality with 419/advance fee/internet-based scams. This does not by any means make the reverse true. Most Nigerians are not involved in internet scams.

What benefit would a watchlist be? What practical or meaningful action could be taken if there were a watchlist? Most countries already check incoming immigrants or visitors for criminal records. If a person entering the country has a criminal record, that would come to light under the current arrangements. If they don't have a criminal record, we certainly can't go around monitoring their private communications on and off the internet in order to establish whether they are or are not scammers. Subjecting anyone to monitoring and violating their privacy simply because their country of origin is associated with scamming would violate the basic civil rights in most countries. And barring them from entering based on their nationality would be equally futile. You certainly can't put an entire nationality on the watchlist.

The vast majority of West African scammers are still located in and will remain in West Africa. They don't routinely enter other countries with the aim of committing their crimes within the borders of that particular country. Preventing them from entering other countries really does not inhibit their abilility to commit crimes in any way. And where would the names come from? Scam emails? These emails reveal only fake names, fake IDs, fake addresses, and anonymous, free email addresses. Foreign authorities? Their cooperation is difficult to obtain, even in cases where victims have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions. Considering that most of the countries where scams are common very rarely arrest or prosecute scammers, the chances of getting any valuable and specific "names to watch" would be miniscule.