No Trust In the Streets...

_{Rosemary Ketchum}

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If you are a fan of cop shows, there is always that episode where the main character will be placed under arrest by their colleague. Or at the very least, be questioned by them. It is one of the worst things that can happen to a cop because that is something they themselves have done countless times and believe it’s something reserved only for criminals.

Well, this post is not about cops. It was quite the weekend in my area, there was a bit of excitement as EFCC busted a house and carted the residents there away. As per their style. Well, my neighborhood does not get much activity like this, so it caused quite a stir and for a few hours, it was all everyone was talking about.

Apparently, the guys in that house are fraudsters and they had been reported by… get this… their fellow fraudsters! No honor among thieves, right?

From what I could gather, both of them, A and B, worked to defraud their mark. But when the money landed, A diverted the funds and claimed it got seized by the banks. Meanwhile, B had seen proof that the money landed. A insisted he didn’t get it, that they should go to the bank and report. A smart move, because who will go and report missing funds gotten by fraudulent means? B refused to believe and insisted he gets his share. He was even more certain of this fact when he saw A on social media posting pictures and videos of him having a good time in the club.

_{Maurício Mascaro}

Well, since B couldn’t get the money, A wasn’t going to enjoy it either. He reported A to EFCC and they came and took everyone in the house away. All young boys between the age of 20 to 27.

When I heard the story, I just laughed.

These guys are the ones that mostly make posts like; No trust in the streets, it’s a jungle out there. I don’t think they have the right to say anything about trust, because they literally make a living out of getting people to trust them and then using the trust against them. That is their modus operandi. So, how will they be foolish enough to trust their fellow fraudsters?

This is very silly if you ask me.

It’s just like if you as an employer interviews a prospective employee, you then ask him why he was fired from the last job he tells you that it was because he stole company funds. You then give him the position of an accountant and trust him to take care of your money. No be juju be that?

I saw a video clip one time of a group of boys beating another guy up, and talking about how he ripped them. To rip someone is simply to defraud them, in street parlance. They were beating up the guy that took the money they took from someone else. Like, this is a really toxic working environment.

_{Genaro Servín}

When I think of it, it’s just like you being a doctor, and wanting to beat up another doctor that performed successful surgery on you. You’re both colleagues, it is bound to happen one day or the other. If you defraud someone, one day you will be defrauded as well. It’s not karma, it’s just a bullet you’ll never see coming.

The thing is that, just like the cop bit I opened this post with, there are some things you will never imagine ever happening to you. The deeper you go into fraud, the more invincible you’ll feel. It will never cross your mind that someone will have the audacity to con you and that you’ll be gullible enough to fall for it. The same way you as a good cop will never imagine you will ever find yourself sitting in the criminal’s chair while your colleagues interrogate you.

So, now that fraud is seen as a way of life, just like dressing half-naked and other silly things. Now that we see it as a legitimate hustle instead of calling it what it is, I believe fraudsters should not be sad when they are given a taste of their own medicine. They should simply swallow their pill and move on to the next mark. Maybe that will tell them how their victims feel every time they steal money from them.

I don’t pity those boys taken by the EFCC one bit. I heard that the house is an HK (think of a record label for artists, that’s what an HK is for fraudsters), and it meant that all of them were fraudsters. They had either stolen money from someone, or were planning to do that. And if for some reason, some of them are innocent but wrongly arrested, I hope they get their release.

We live in trying times my dear friends, we need to be careful. After all, if one thief is expecting loyalty from another thief, isn’t that a sign of the end time?

_{Nathan Cowley}

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_{Thank you for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts with me in the comments section below, I would love to know what you are thinking. Till we meet in the next post.}

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