Scamming: A way out of misery for youths in the crisis hit regions of Cameroon?
By Veronica Maya
“You can be with someone you’ve known for years and out of the blues, that person comes to you with a car and all the luxury.Then you begin asking yourself where and how your mate got such money” Dimitri Kamdem a 25 year old youth living in Bamenda, chief town of the North West region of Cameroon wondered.
It is now a norm to see youths aged 20-25 driving round the city of Bamenda with luxurious vehicles amongst which the Toyota and Hyundai brands. This to the amazement of all who are expressing worries over the influence these youths are having on the few who choose to get rich by getting a job and earning a wage at the end of the month.
These “Scammers” are constantly on the spotlight as though canvassing for more recruits to join their league “Many of my friends are into scamming and they have stopped coming to school.They now pay other people to follow up their studies and get busy making money.” Dimitri adds that these youth most of whom boys have been divided into two categories (the straight and twisted scammers). Straight because they sell fake items online like spare parts and dogs and twisted because they go beyond the physical which sometimes scare him.
Nadine Mbah, a journalism graduate residing in Bamenda rather has a very cordial relationship with her scamming friends “I have a very good relationship with them. They are very caring and don’t talk me into joining them in what they call their business”
Scamming described as a swindle varries from blackmail to romance scams or selling non existent items. In the case of Bamenda, blackmail, hacking and sale of non existent items are rampant. Kingsley Ngufor, an IT engineer working with the North West branch of the National Agency for Information and Communication Technologies-ANTIC discloses that the cyber crime has grown over the years ” In 2022 we had 718 cybercimes reported with 22 cases of identity theft. In 2023, we received 984 complaints only in the North West and there were 32 issues of cyber blackmail with 27 people arrested most of whom were youth. From January to April 2024, 270 cases were reported and I can assure you that most of them were stolen phones which have been hacked and used to scam people through malicious links and calls to request for money”
The hardship further complicated by the ongoing social unrest in the North West region for about eight years now is the main excuse these youth give for their involvement into scamming. Some have attested haven gotten into scamming to raise money for a proper business. This is what Merveille, a drycleaner in the town shared “I knew one guy two years back. He was the eldest in their family and both parents died and no one to help. He dropped from school struggling to send his younger ones. But we all know how the country can be hard.Then he said to himself ” I needed just capital to start something which no one could give me. Now that I have the money, I will stop scamming and start a business” which he did.Today he is able to take care of his siblings.”
The Cameroon law of December 21, 2010 on cyber security and cybercrime governing the security framework of electronic communication networks and information systems slams jail terms from one to ten years and fines from one million to ten billion on persons found guilty of infringing the law in different domains. But these youth seemingly don’t seem worried as the parade the streets of Bamenda daily with their special Afro “dada” look.
