Nigeria Scam Buster

[yommys01]

I was answering some questions on yahoo answers and I keep coming accross Nigeria scam related questions and I was wondering... what if I start a scam alert blog?

I have been battling with this for sometime but the believe that I have to make money keeps stopping me.

Do you think this is a good idea? Can I make money through it - at least to pay for the domain name every year and monthly hosting.

Any Idea?

Hint : I am only willing to do this over the weekends.

Do I think this is a good idea?

NO!

You need to sell something to a base of customers to get rich online. Else you will only be making money online.

[yommys01]

Originally Posted by Creative Thinker

Do I think this is a good idea?

NO!

You need to sell something to a base of customers to get rich online. Else you will only be making money online.

I am definitely not going to abandone my online business because of this.

I will still be doing my online business and this over the weekends.

[kkchoon]

That would be nice, and if you can include a scam report feature that allows people to report scan from Nigeria would be great!

It may take some time before your country really settle the scam problem...

Do you have a monetize plan in place? Or just do this for good?

[yommys01]

Originally Posted by kkchoon

That would be nice, and if you can include a scam report feature that allows people to report scan from Nigeria would be great!

It may take some time before your country really settle the scam problem...

Do you have a monetize plan in place? Or just do this for good?

Making money from it is not my main aim but it will be nice if the site can finance it self.

I was frustrate due to what I have to go through as a Nigerian and decided to go to yahoo answers to answer some questions to promote a reverse phone lookup site of mine but I notice I keep getting people asking whether a Nigerian phone number is own by a scammer ( about 3 of them and I got best answers for all).

I need to make money online but I will do this if it is what God wants from me.

[Blade Runner 88]

For what its worth we have a new nigeria scam showing up here in New Zealand. People answer ads on trademe, a local equivelant to craigslist/ebay, for pedigree dogs. The dog is always about 1/2 the going price but they also get asked fees up to a thousand plus to cover costs for fake licensing, veterinary, travel, insurance, customs you name it.
Sometimes the pets are advertised as being here in NZ, other times they say the animals in Nigeria. A recent Tv expose had the scam guys on the phone claiming that a plane would bring the pet from Nigeria to New Zealand in 2 to 3 hours, and even after being called on it, refused to alter their story. In fact Nigeria to NZ is about Moscow to Los Angeles, and there ain't no plane going to do that in 3 hours.

Never ending idiots preying on trustworthy people.

[yommys01]

Originally Posted by 105724

For what its worth we have a new nigeria scam showing up here in New Zealand. People answer ads on trademe, a local equivelant to craigslist/ebay, for pedigree dogs. The dog is always about 1/2 the going price but they also get asked fees up to a thousand plus to cover costs for fake licensing, veterinary, travel, insurance, customs you name it.
Sometimes the pets are advertised as being here in NZ, other times they say the animals in Nigeria. A recent Tv expose had the scam guys on the phone claiming that a plane would bring the pet from Nigeria to New Zealand in 2 to 3 hours, and even after being called on it, refused to alter their story. In fact Nigeria to NZ is about Moscow to Los Angeles, and there ain't no plane going to do that in 3 hours.

Never ending idiots preying on trustworthy people.

I just hope the Government will be sincere enough to stop this but how can they? Aren't they the scammers.

Honestly, this is affecting many of us Nigerians who are using the internet to make legit money but again, it is stupid of people to think all Nigerians are the same.

[Shaka]

This sounds like a workable idea to me. In many cases, giving away something of value for free (such as your alert information) is a first step to a sale of a related product. It can also be an excellent way to build an email list. I say DO IT!

[yommys01]

Originally Posted by Shaka

This sounds like a workable idea to me. In many cases, giving away something of value for free (such as your alert information) is a first step to a sale of a related product. It can also be an excellent way to build an email list. I say DO IT!

This is just going to be based on busting scams and nothing more. No list to be built. No product to sale except if I decide to write a product on how to avoid scams.

[yommys01]

Originally Posted by Marc Rodill

I think you should do it if you want to, as a hobby. As far as making money goes, it would be a waste of your time.

If you have a personal reason to do it (fulfillment, sense of justice, etc) then go for it.

Nothing is a bad idea if you have a reason why behind it.

But it's probably, most likely, potentially not going to be profitable.

I mean, c'mon, sell a product on how to avoid scams? That just sounds scammy.

"Rule #1 of avoiding scams: Be alert and know when you should fold your cards and not buy something, or into something, like this product, because avoiding a scam is common sense, and some people just don't have it, and are vulnerable to this type of stuff, so you can't help them anyways. Good luck."

Thanks for the wonderful advise... I was really not going to sell anything. Just saying cos of what the other guy said.

[rapidscc]

Hi Yommy,

This is a great plan

Everything that truly gives VALUE can be monetized....

Think about it..You want to have a Nigerian Scam Alert Site..

What will be the VALUE -

1. alert people to avoid scams - this is very valuable, now there are always two sides to a coin. Applying the principle what we could do is....

Provide a list of your verified programs or business advertisements that really delivers

Who knows? maybe you will even start the greatest verified legit .com business directory in Nigeria..

And when that time comes..It could even be a full-time business..

This is just an idea..it might or might not work..but we'll never now until you try..

All Success..

Omar

[Jason_V]

Yommys,

You're looking at this from the wrong angle. You don't have to pick one or the other. You just have to look a little deeper. Here's what I am talking about:

I think it would be a great idea to start a blog about these scammers. That would be your "good deed." There's nothing wrong with signing people up to a newsletter too. You could call it the "Scambuster Newsletter" or something like that. You could then keep track of other scams going on. There are plenty out there, so this wouldn't be too hard to do.

Within your newsletter you could have a CPA offer or some sort of general product with an affiliate link from Clickbank, registry cleaner, anti-aging, lose weight, etc...

The other aspect to this is you have to ask yourself "why do people fall for Nigerian scams?"

Simple, they're just looking for a way to make some extra money. Here's where you can talk about internet marketing and how you're making extra money online legitimately. You can then suggest some internet marketing products that you have used and believe in with an affiliate link. Or, just link from the scam blog to your IM blog, if you have one, so they can get the info there.

You can do this as a good deed, and make money too. Nothing wrong with that.

[Blade Runner 88]

Hi Yommy,
Roger from NZ. I missed the bit in my first post about where you are from, and I sympathize, its sad but true that Nigeria's name has been muddied far and wide about these scams. I agree too, with the other posters here and yourself, there is definitely room for a service and a good website/blog that would help people and help you too, I say think deeply about it, get lots of input from members here and go for it.

btw, what about setting up an area where victims of the latest scam could add their warning to your site, so it would be a self expanding site. I think you'd sell well, software products for anti virals etc, things that make people feel more secure. After all, they're arriving feeling insecure after being scammed...make people feel good, I think there's an income there, not to mention possible free publicity with press releases, ie a Nigerian standing up for his country and helping others.
All the best.

[Will Edwards]

If you can make a decent blog about it and build traffic over time you could become the authority in that field, perhaps get some decent traffic from Google and funnel some of it back through Adsense.

Good luck.

Will

[JackPowers]

You should do this to gain credibility and add to your portfolio. So, you have problems with peoples perception because you are from Nigeria, then you can add the link to your scambuster blog in your profile, about me, resource box etc. It would add credibility.

[Tron2k]

Nigerian scam fighter huh? do you know for fact it is the Nigerians? ever thought? could be a ploy.. just my $0.02

[lonpora]

Sounds like a good idea Yommy. Why not just go for it.

Plus you've got some great ideas to go on from the guys here.

[premiuminvestor]

Great idea yommy.

As a Nigerian I know how much obstacles and limitations that have been imposed on us because of these crazy scammers dragging our name in the mud.

I will even gladly work together with you on the idea. It is a workable idea. The best way to go about it is to forget about monetization first.

Put helping people first and monetization will be easy after people know they can trust you.

Like I said earlier, we could JV on this, I mean only Nigerians can put an end to this rubbish!

[The Skint IM]

Yommy I think this is a good idea BUT - Would it be safe ?

Are they likely to try and track you down ?

[Diana Lane]

I wondered about the possible repercussions too, and I'm surprised that's not been mentioned sooner. There's a LOT of money generated from these scams, and I would not have thought those behind the biggest of them would let you take them out quietly. Even if they would stop short of damaging your person, I'd have thought you could expect to find your reputation under attack at the very least, from people who've been dodging mud for years and know how to make it stick.

That said, there's a lot of truth in the saying that it only takes one good man to do nothing for evil men to triumph. I think there are some very real risks here, and you need to consider how effective or otherwise you're going to be in the face of them. It's a lot to take on.

[rosetrees]

I've sent you a PM Yommy

[yommys01]

Originally Posted by ajay0547

Nigerian scammers are all over the world right. Last night, another one was caught here.

I agree with you, it is not only Nigeria, it is just that Nigeria is popular with it.

Originally Posted by Diana Lane

I wondered about the possible repercussions too, and I'm surprised that's not been mentioned sooner. There's a LOT of money generated from these scams, and I would not have thought those behind the biggest of them would let you take them out quietly. Even if they would stop short of damaging your person, I'd have thought you could expect to find your reputation under attack at the very least, from people who've been dodging mud for years and know how to make it stick.

That said, there's a lot of truth in the saying that it only takes one good man to do nothing for evil men to triumph. I think there are some very real risks here, and you need to consider how effective or otherwise you're going to be in the face of them. It's a lot to take on.

Yeah I understand there is risk associated with it but I can always do this anonymously without putting my name and if it is what God wants me to do , then he will make a way for escape.

[yommys01]

Originally Posted by Nathan Segal

You might want to check out Scambusters.org. They expose scams and their site is free, though they make money from advertsing.

Thanks for the advice. I will check out the site in a couple of days when I have finally decided it is something I want to do.

[jek1471]

Yommy, you could check [www] scamigator [dot] com
Let's get talking

[mekadon009]

go ahead man

[thegamecat]

I was in the niche but sold and moved on. Hard to sell to, easy to get traffic. Your choice really.