ESET, a global leader in digital security, has provided insights on the rising threat of online scams.

In a significant operation earlier in the week, Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), conducted a large-scale raid on the Big Leaf Building in Lagos, identified as a key hub for fraudulent activities.

According to EFCC’s account, 792 individuals were arrested during the operation, including 148 Chinese and 40 Filipino nationals, all suspected of involvement in a global fraud network.

The suspects are alleged to have operated a complex scam ring that deceived victims through fraudulent romance offers and cryptocurrency investment schemes.

The Big Leaf Building served as the central location for a call center operation, primarily targeting individuals from the Americas and Europe.

The Nigerian accomplices-initiated contact with victims, while foreign nationals managed the deceptive schemes, coercing victims into transferring funds.

During the raid, the EFCC seized computers, mobile phones, and vehicles. Authorities are now collaborating with international law enforcement agencies to investigate potential connections to larger organized crime syndicates.

This operation represents a significant step in combatting the escalating threat of online fraud and transnational criminal activity.

In a media briefing held on Monday, December 16th, 2024, at the EFCC Lagos office, Wilson Uwujaren, the director of Public Affairs, revealed that Nigerian accomplices were recruited to target victims through phishing campaigns, utilizing platforms such as WhatsApp, Instagram, and Telegram.

Reacting to the development, Mr. Olufemi Ake, ESET’s managing director for West Africa, emphasized that fraudsters often use dating sites and social media to assume false identities, making it increasingly difficult to detect their deceptive tactics.

These criminals frequently employ psychological manipulation and advanced artificial intelligence to build trust with their victims, further complicating efforts to catch them.

Ake also noted that many of the Nigerian suspects involved in these fraudulent activities were unaware of the true identity of their employers, as they did not receive official letters of appointment or payments from corporate accounts.

This, he argued, highlights the need for employees to regularly vet their employers’ operations to avoid being ensnared in fraudulent schemes.

“As online criminals become more skilled at exploiting digital platforms, Ake advised individuals to remain cautious and informed to protect themselves from falling prey to increasingly sophisticated fraud tactics”, he said.

He recommended verifying identities through trusted channels, being skeptical of unsolicited investment opportunities, especially those involving cryptocurrencies, and ensuring that their devices are equipped with up-to-date cybersecurity applications. “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is,” Olufemi Ake concluded.

When you’re in a relationship, it’s very likely you want to know if he or she is the one.

“The one” here literally means the one you want to settle down with because there might be more than one person who you can like, or who you like, But there has to  be just one person for you to settle down with.

So here are some signs to tell you if he or she is that one person for you.

1. Your dreams and goals are in synch:

Okay, your goals and values together might not be 100 percent exactly in sync, but you both share a very good considerable amount of goals together.

It could be your attributes, your ambitions, your personality, and so much more. But you just discover that you and the one are mostly sharing your goals and dreams together.

2. You feel safe and original around them:

When you’re with “the one” they make you feel so safe and original around them as you won’t have to hide your weaknesses when they are there.

You won’t have to be scared of saying or doing things ordinarily for the fear of them criticizing you.

There is just a balance of them letting you be yourself and at the same time helping you be a better version of yourself.

3. Their Imperfections are not enough reasons for you to leave them:

When you’re dating the one persay, you just have that love that compels you to want to see and bring out the best in them.

So their Imperfections are never a deal breaker for you. It could be how they look or behave, but instead of that scaring you away, it pulls you closer to them to help them be better. Same goes for them seeing you the same way.

4. They are always willing to work on the relationship:

Being in a relationship requires more than love. It requires understanding and the willingness to work together even in times of conflict. So when you’re dating the one, it just feels right that you both are always committed to making the relationship work especially in bad times. So that commitment towards it, shows you that you’re with the one unlike situations where some persons easily quit the relationship when things go rough.

5. You’ve faced challenges together and your relationship is still standing strong:

This is one very valuable point as it shows your deep level of love, understanding, and commitment towards each other whether emotionally, financially, physically and otherwise. If you both have faced some challenges together, and you always find a way to overcome it and still stick together, it means you are with “The one” no doubt.

6. You’re always featured in their future:

When you’re with the one, you just notice they are always including you in their plans and everything that’s very important to their lives. This shows how important they see and take you, and also how they really want you to be a part of them. The same goes for you. You just see yourself including them in your plans and future.

7. They talk about you and show you off:

Once you’re with the one, you’ll notice how well they show you off to their family and friends. They don’t keep you a secret as they’ll always want the people close to them to know about you. And they’ll often brag about you. Same goes for how you feel and act towards that one person you really desire.

8. You just feel it deep within:

When you’re with that one person, your guts just tells you so. Deep within everything about them just sits right with you and you feel it that he or she is the one. And truthfully, your instincts rarely mislead you. So you just trust it.

These primary signs tell you that you are with “the one”.

So I hope this article was helpful.

Do enjoy a great relationship life with that one person and thanks for reading.

A man who goes by the name   “John” (real name withheld), has brought himself out to the media to disclose how he got married to his father’s wife.

According to him, he said it all started some years ago when he returned from the city to visit home. His dad who was married to three wives already at that time, was planning to still take in a Fourth wife.

He said he ca​​me from a polygamous family in the southern part of Nigeria as his mother is the second wife owing to the fact that his dad is a Chief.

So the life of polygamy wasn’t something rare or abnormal to his people. But to him, he was never cool with it.

In his own words, read his story.

“Coming from a polygamous family was never something to be proud of for me. Infact as a child, I detested my father so much for marrying my mother as a second wife. My whole family as at that time knew how angry being in the family made me feel. But nothing changed.

When I was 18, now my dad was already in his late 50s, the news of him wanting to take in a 3rd wife started spreading. I remember walking to my father angrily and threatening him (lolzz), well nothing changed. It didn’t stop him. He finally took in a very young lady in her 20s.

I was badly hurt with that new addition that I had to leave home. I traveled out to another state entirely to stay with my mum’s family.

I didn’t go home for years because I really wanted nothing to do with my dad and his polygamist personality.

10 years later, my step mum who was my dad’s first wife died so I had to come in for the burial.

Just after a week she was buried, my dad and his people decided it was time to marry another wife, that’s the fourth one now.

I went straight into the meeting of my dad and his elders and clearly gave a warning that my dad shouldn’t think of it because I will not sit still and watch that happen.

Well, I guess they thought I was joking until i did what I did.

Three days after their meeting, a very beautiful and young girl in her mid 20s was brought home to be my father’s wife.

At first, all I wanted to do was cause trouble by chasing her back and upsetting my father and his kinsmen. But when I saw how beautiful, calm and humble the lady was, I had to think of another strategy.

Now before you think I just dived in straight to take her from my father, noooo there was more to that.

By tradition, she was supposed to move into my father’s chambers one month after my step mum’s burial. But she has to be in the household before then to learn certain things from the other wives. So I had to use within that period to plan something different.

I started by confronting her the next day after she came. I got her into an interrogative discussion, and yes I was so rude to her. But after asking her so many questions as to why she would want to succumb to marrying someone old enough to be her dad, I got to find out that she was a very brilliant person with great dreams who was only trying to take care of her family and do their wish by marrying my dad because her family wouldn’t have it another way.

From that day, we got into more conversations, and I started seeing more to her than just a naive girl trying to obey her family.

Well, the truth is, when you keep getting closer to people or knowing them more, there’s every tendency to start liking them. And that was what happened.

I started liking her, well, even though nobody in the family noticed at the time, but I started hanging out with her and we really started going deep with our friendship.

And finally, the both of us fell in love within three weeks she came into our household.

I had to confide in my mum about the recent development, but she wouldn’t hear of it. But that didn’t stop me anyway.

I told myself, if I waited one more week, my beautiful found love will be married to my dad,  and no one will back me to stop it.

So I did just one thing, some days to their marriage, after speaking to her with much assurance of a better life with me, The both of us eloped.

I already had money to start a new life, so it was all a little easy.

I dropped a letter behind for my mum and the family, changed my phone number, infact I went on ghost mode after running away with my father’s to be wife.

We started of in another state, we started of a business together, I pushed her to school and we really built ourselves for 5 years. Even though we stayed far and away from both our families as that was the sacrifice we had to pay, but in the end, it was worth it.

Message got to me in that 5th year that my dad was So sick and needed to see me as he might not make it.

I was scared but also desperate to fix things now by seeing him.

I went home finally, and to my surprise, instead of the hostile welcome I was expecting to meet, the whole family welcomed me.

My dad and I spoke about everything that had happened, I apologized and he said he was okay as long as I loved her. He told me how being a polygamist wasn’t his personality but he was not too bold to fight against tradition like I could.

Before my dad passed, I brought her home immediately and both her family and mine united together to get us married properly.

Today, we are doing incredibly okay with our lives and our kids.

And that was the end of forceful polygamy struggle in my family. It is now a matter of choice and not a force for who doesn’t want it.

So, this is the story of how I ended up marrying my father’s wife (almost to be wife anyway).