A Nigerian internet fraudster known as the ‘king of dating’ for his sophisticated tactics of online manipulation has given an eye-opening confession at a Lagos-based church. Samuel Johnson, an Edo State indigene, explained that his journey into advanced internet scamming began in The University of Port Harcourt after he joined the ‘Black-Axe’ cult.
“I followed them into a very thick forest during the
night of initiation,” the young man narrated. He was just 19 years old at
the time. “We reached a place where there
was a candle and a coffin encircled by 50 young men. They tortured us with
canes until we started bleeding. They then cut my tongue on a razor blade and
gave me something to drink.”
The quiet, intelligent student changed drastically from that day onward. “It was like I had two people living inside me,” he recalled. “I became very aggressive. I had this
strength to want to steal and started stealing from people. I also started
smoking and drinking excessively. Anytime I drank, it’s like I became stronger.”
A cult friend
into online fraud, popularly known as 419, soon egged him into joining. However,
for Samuel, there was a strange, spiritual element to his deceptive tricks. “There was a spirit inside me that kept
teaching me. I was not just any fraudster; I learned it from meditating on it.
It was inbuilt. Even if I walked into a room and money was kept there, I would
know where to find it.”
Starting by
procuring foreign sim-cards from UK and USA so as to deceive potential victims,
Samuel specifically targeted wealthy foreign ladies in North America. “I had pictures and pre-recorded videos of a
white man. There is software which will replay these videos on Skype. So, if I
am Skyping with you, you will not see my present self – you would see this
video on a webcam. I had about 20 different videos with the same white man and
I had created stories behind each clip. When I showed my victims, they all believed
it was real.”
Johnson explained
Facebook was the easiest way to attract prospective ‘customers’ and he had
fixed a fake profile using the same pictures in the doctored videos he owned. “I would tell them I was an engineer who worked
and lived in London, that I am rich and wealthy. I wouldn’t tell them I’m not
rich; it was the money I used to drag them towards me.”
Johnson explained
how he used his boast of huge wealth to lull victims into a false sense of
security. “Sometimes I would ask them to
help me look for a property agent to buy a house. I would tell them I am ready
to pay for the house as soon as I come. I would send them a fake e-ticket and
tell them I would be arriving in two weeks. I even had a pre-recorded video of
a 12 year old girl who I pretended was my daughter. I had this assistant who
would help me in speaking like a small girl. There is no way you would see that
video on Skype and not believe it is real. They buy into it immediately. That
was how I was able to draw them to get money from them.”
To gain added
confidence, Samuel would ensure an emotional attachment was fostered. “You make it look real. I would send them
gifts – rings, champagne, credit cards to shop. We would have ‘phone sex’ to
draw their attention even more – that is how they believed. Sometimes, I could
be talking to 10 different women simultaneously and I never forgot their names.”
Once such naïve
trust was established, extorting money was relatively easy, the former
fraudster explained. “I would tell them
to contact my bank. Once they give me their details, I would make a fake wire
transfer. They would see the money moving into their account. When it stops, I
would tell them that they have to contact the bank and pay the ‘cost of
transfer’.”
The expert duper
would even go to the extent of getting personal bank details of his foreign
victims, and then call their bank pretending to be an owner of the account,
change information and request for a huge loan.
Money flowed
freely. “I could make $30,000, $80,000 -
even $250,000 on a single victim. I was living in very luxurious and expensive
hotels. I moved to Omole Phase One, Ikeja and lived in an apartment for which I
paid N1.5m every year. I bought all my properties in one day. I was lavishing
it. I would buy Hennessy every day. I had to drink. The thing is – I needed to
alcohol in order for me to perform,” he recounted.
Johnson explained
that his preferred victims were those who were high-ranking, intelligent
professionals. “We preferred people who
were educated – people that would say, ‘It is not possible for me to be scammed’.
I attacked lawyers through Yellow Pages in USA. I would tell the lawyer that someone
owes me money from Michigan and the person is living in Alaska. The person the
lawyer would contact in Alaska would be me also. Once he talked to this ‘person’,
I would say, ‘I really owe him money and I want to pay back $300,000’. I would
send the lawyer a cheque and once I sent it, they would not find out from the
bank if the cheque was real; they would just deposit it.”
Johnson gained
such a reputation for his scamming tricks that he began teaching others, even
foreigners. “I had many boys that I was
training. They called me the ‘king of dating’ because I always got what I
wanted. Sometimes I would be invited to Benin or Lagos to teach fraud. I even trained
grown men who were 40 to 45 years old. Some were not even black or Nigerian;
some where white. They called themselves diplomats but carried fake money.”
With the words, ‘Money;
power; respect’ tattooed on Samuels’ arm, it served as a constant reminder of
his mission. “That was the law I lived
under,” he explained. “Sometimes, if
I had emotions towards the people I was defrauding, this tattoo would remind me
of why I entered this business in the first place. I would say there was no
mercy.”
Samuel said he had
lost count of the people he had deceptively stolen money from online. “I derived pleasure in doing it. It made me
feel strong – that I could make people do what I wanted them to do. I did not
do this alone. I had bankers as friends who helped me out. In fact, the money I
tipped them with would be more than their salary for the whole year.”
However, despite
the flamboyance and lavish lifestyle, Samuel said his life was bereft of joy
and the money was merely fleeting. “Whenever
I got this money, it was like chaff before the wind – it would blow away. I
never enjoyed it for one day. I would always fight and beat any girl I was
dating. There was such anger, like there was someone living inside me. My life
was upside down. I would always fear that I would be involved in an accident.
If I was crossing the road, even if there was no car coming, I would run. I was
living in isolation. I never came out during the day. Everything was troubling
me. I never had peace. My heart was beating fast. I behaved like someone was
chasing me whereas no one was chasing me.”
When a close
friend and fellow fraudster was shot dead point-blank at the tender age of 23,
Samuel was rudely jolted back to reality. His life was a mess. His dreams were dominated
by violent attacks and sexual encounters. He needed help. When an evangelist
came knocking at his door, Samuel knew it was the voice of God speaking – he
needed Divine intervention to start afresh.
That night,
Samuel had an unusual dream. A pastor he had only seen on a few occasions on
television came with a message. “I saw TB
Joshua in my dream. He told me to fast for three days,” he stated.
Complying with the instruction in the Heavenly visitation, Samuel began nursing
the desire to visit Joshua’s church in Lagos, The Synagogue, Church Of All
Nations (SCOAN).
It was on the ‘prayer
line’ at The SCOAN that Samuel experienced what he termed ‘deliverance’. “When
the man of God touched me, I immediately saw myself facing a judge. I felt
something in between my chest starting to pop out. I then felt like something left
me and before I knew it, I saw myself on the floor.”
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