Three Common Scams You Will Find in Lagos, Nigeria

Every city has certain people who make their money from scamming unsuspecting people; As the Americans would say, "there's a sucker born every minute."

The most common type of scams in the city of Lagos includes:

The Twenty Naira (N20) Scam

This is one of the most common scams in Lagos. The scammer (who is often well dressed and looks very responsible) stands at the bus-stop and pleads with a passerby; "please help me with twenty Naira, I need to get home but my transport fare is twenty Naira short" and of course twenty Naira (an inconsequential amount) is handed to him or her without a second thought. The strategy is to collect twenty Naira notes from as many people as possible, by playing on their pity. They sometimes have well dressed children with them, whose job is to induce pity.

The Trunk Filled With Cash Scam

This scam includes a cab/car driver and three other passengers (who are in on the scam); the driver offers to take you to your destination (for a price) and when you are seated, the driver tells one of the passengers to pay extra money for her (this person is usually a woman) goods or else he'll toss out her goods on the main road. She starts arguing with him and he gets down from the car and opens the trunk and she immediately agrees to pay the extra money he charged her. He comes back and sits behind the wheel and turns to the woman and says "madam, why on earth will you be carrying raw cash about and where are you going with all that cash?" The whole aim of this conversation is to arouse your interest and rope you into a so-called "deal" where you will be asked to provide some money to buy money washing chemicals. Many people have fallen for this trick, because the scammers will show their unsuspecting victims Dollar currencies covered with a black film that needs to be washed off with the money washing chemical. As soon as they get their hands on your money you'll be left with nothing but a box filled with blank notes.

The Shiploads of Electronics Scam

This scam involves someone walking up to you and asking you for directions to a fictitious street (just to start a conversation with you), he urges you to ask the man behind you (who is in on the scam) for directions and these two suddenly hit-it-off and try to convince you to get buyers for a shipload of fairly used electronics. The man offers to give the two of you a reasonable share of profits from the sale of these goods; the other guy is in full agreement and convinces you to make some good money from this deal. The strategy is to get you to buy TV sets filled with bricks!

The best way to avoid these scams is to avoid talking to people you hardly know and who are more than too happy to make you a sweet deal that is more than too good to be true