Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - BONUS: The Reformed Nigerian Scammer Who Took Thousands From Innocent People...

Episode Date: June 21, 2023

We talk to Chris a reformed Nigerian Scammer!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're joined by a fascinating guest right now from Nigeria. His name is Chris. He's a former scammer, now reformed. Thanks so much for your time. How are you? I'm good. I'm very good. Are you good, Ben?

Yeah, I'm good. Thank you so much for your time, Chris. Now, you're joining us from overseas. You're a former scammer who now works for a company called Social Catfish who helps protect people online. But let's start off when you were a scammer who now works for a company called Social Catfish who helps protect people online, but let's start off when you were a scammer. You used to catfish people for many years. Yes, that is true.

I was a scammer and now I work for Social Catfish. Yep, and so what was your scam? I take down military pictures, cute military good-looking guys. I use their pictures to to create profile on dating sites like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and stuff like that. So, okay, so just to recap there, you look online, you get pictures of cute military guys, and you set up a profile, a dating profile.

Yes. How do you make people fall? I mean, obviously, the cute military guys is a great start. What about cute radio guys? I don't know if there's any of those. Did you use any cute radio guys there, Chris? Cute radio guys, though, I've done many pictures. Not that many pictures.

No, you're right. I'll send you my picture. There's not that many of those. How do you make a person fall in love with you? I imagine this would take time, to know someone and uh interacting with them sometimes it takes days sometimes it takes hours for them to fall in love sometimes it takes weeks you know the person you're talking to you need to have a great sense of humor you need to be funny you need to be to to give attention you need to understand like you need to be to make

sure she's safe with you like most of them fall for that yeah you said sometimes it takes hours you get people to fall in love with you in hours i'll tell you what i'm falling in love with you already so then you you've reeled them in so to speak at what point do you begin asking for money and how do you ask for money what do you say it's for um i would ask for money exactly when i know she trusts me she asks asks, who trusts me? Sometimes I can tell her I need money to buy groceries. Sometimes I say my car is impounded. I need money to get it out. Do they ever ask, they would have asked to see your face. What do you say when they say, can I see your face?

Can we go on a video call? I tell them I can do a video call on deployments. Oh, deployments. Yeah, gotcha. It's military stuff. You wouldn't understand. Yeah. gotcha. It's military stuff. You wouldn't understand. Okay, so you lure them in. You're getting money out of them.

Is any part of you feeling guilty? Are you lying awake at night going, what am I doing with my life? When I just started, I felt guilty. But at some point when I started making big money, it felt good. It felt so good. So the money washed away the guilt.

Yes. The money washed away the guilt. I read that you were fine at first because these people were rich. And you're like, well, they have the money. But then at one point, you felt really guilty. And you ended up confessing to a lady and crying and telling her everything. This lady gave me over $20,000. She became so broke.

She needed to pay tax. She was in debt because of me. She lost her kids because of me. She became depressed and she was so sick. I felt this guilty conscience when she really wanted to see my face. I just called her on a video call. I told her, hey, I'm Chris. I'm sorry for what I did.

I'm sorry. She took me in like a son. She loved me so much, and we still talk up to now. That is amazing. So the lady you scammed over $20,000 out, you confessed to her, and she opens up her arms and says, I'll take you in like a son, which is a bit weird because she thought you were her boyfriend for a while there.

But now you talk every day. That's incredible. Yes. She really wanted me to come to the States. I'll just go straight to her house. I have a room. She bought me clothes. She loves me like a mother.

She loves her son. And she supported you with your new job for Social Catfish, which is a company that is set up to stop people like you were in your former life as a scammer. So you're doing good now, which is great. What bit of advice would you have for someone to stop them from getting scammed, who maybe is feeling a bit lonely and looking for love? Is going on the internet looking for love a good idea? People, the problem is there are so many divorced.

People should just stop getting divorced. If you're talking to someone online, make sure they show their face to you on video call. Okay, so your suggestion is to avoid being scammed, live out a miserable marriage until your days are done. You know, if you're talking to someone and they cannot show their face on video, it's a scam. It's a scam if they don't show their face. Okay, that's good. And so from your point of view, did you ever fall in love with anyone? Yes. I need to be emotional when I say I'm happy.

I make sure it looks real. I make it look real. Right. So you actually do fall in love with these people. There's a lot of scams from your part of the world. Why? The government is bad. The system is bad. People are jobless. The economy is so bad. So that's why there are so many scams from this part of the world.

Do the people get caught? Do the scammers get caught? Some of them get caught. Sometimes they get busted. Like they're busted into their houses and all that. So if I am talking to someone online and I think it's too good to be true, I can get in touch with you at Social Catfish. And do you investigate?

Do you look into that person and tell me if it's a scam or not? Yes, definitely. Yes, that's what I'm going to do. Like a private investigator of scamming. You're scamming the scammers now. Hey, well, Chris, this has been an absolute pleasure I fear that if I talk to you for any longer I'm going to fall in love with you

and wire transfer you some money so we better hang up on you. Thank you very much for your time. Okay, you're welcome. I really appreciate it.