From Australia we get this interesting article….

Facebook has been infiltrated by Nigerian scammers and other cyber criminals who use compromised accounts to con users out of cash.

Now that even non-tech savvy internet users know not to respond to, or click on links in, emails from strangers, online thieves have turned to social networks and are finding it is easier to trick people when posing as their friends.

On Friday, Sydneysider Karina Wells received a Facebook message from one of her friends, Adrian, saying he was stranded in Lagos, Nigeria, and needed her to lend him $500 for a ticket home.

Adrian used relatively good English but, after chatting further, words such as “cell” instead of “mobile phone” tipped Wells off that she was not talking to her friend but someone who had taken over his account.

Using sites such as Facebook allows scammers to research and target victims more effectively and avoid having their messages blocked by spam filters, said Paul Ducklin, head of technology at Sophos Asia Pacific.

It is likely the scammer obtained Adrian’s Facebook login details after he was infected with a virus delivered by email or in an infected web page.

Oh well… What goes around, comes around.

Posted by Naija Pundit

The Pendulum By Dele Momodu, Email: delemomodu@thisdayonline.com, 10.11.2008A  journey to Australia is definitely an endurance test. And no matter your degree of preparation, it must wear you out. That was the case as I dragged myself into the “relaxation suite” already reserved for me at the Hilton on The Park Melbourne. It was as if the futuristic hotel was waiting eagerly for this over-flogged body. The trio of my wonderful hosts, Wale Olaitan, Toyin Abass and Biola Falayajo advised me not to underrate the fatigue in my body and suggested I should have a quick shower, and jump into bed. I heeded their advice, and even did more.
As soon as they left me, I unpacked, and went straight into the massive bathroom that came fitted with a shower and a spacious Jacuzzi. Trust me, I soaked myself inside this great creation of man, and must have felt like a fish as the aromatherapy gels mixed with some tendering salts created rejuvenating bubbles all over my body. I didn’t know when I slept off. I later woke up wondering where on earth I was, and had to scan my environment well in order to come back to reality. Welcome to Australia, I said to myself, as I went under the powerful shower to rinse off the salts and soaps.
After this pampering, I knew I had to settle down quickly to write my column for last week. I would have hated to get the usual subtle text from the energetic editor of THISDAY on Saturday, Ijeoma Nwogwugwu, saying “Dele, I’m still awaiting my back-page” or “you are delaying my back-page o.” It is always a triumphant victory for me to send the column before Ijeoma would ask for it. Writing a column requires a special discipline for someone who’s constantly on the move like me. I’ve even had to invest in a roaming GPRS to be able to log on to the Internet on the move in some particular countries that I visit regularly like Nigeria, Benin Republic, Ghana and South Africa. In Australia, getting internet access is the easiest of things. It is as common as popcorn.
When my column was done and sent off, I settled down to watch a repeat of the Joe Biden versus Sarah Palin debate, which I had missed while flying from Hong Kong to Sydney. The analysis of the debate also provided some useful insights into how the American vice presidential candidates had performed. Say what you will, the Americans have succeeded in turning their politics into a soap opera. We are all hooked on to the dramatic intrigues and plots, and the suspense. Also it would seem some juju men in Kenya are busy cooking some esoteric jazz for a suave and dashing Barrack Obama to beat the war veteran John McCain in the general elections on November 4. How does one explain, that everything that can go wrong has gone wrong for the Republicans at this delicate moment. The cataclysmic collapse of the American economy to an all-time low can only be described as a divine intervention in Obama’s favour according to the Obamamaniacs.
I woke up the following morning, not remembering at what stage sleep dealt me a blow. I was later picked up by Wale Olaitan who drove me to the home of Biola Falayajo, a university egg-head who was hosting us to a barbecue. In attendance was the Nigerian High Commissioner to Australia and New Zealand, Professor Olu Agbi, an authority on diplomatic history, who had earlier served as our Ambassador in Greece. He’s rightly described by Nigerians in Australia as “the father of all”, as I’ll later discovered. His eloquent speech was laced with anecdotes and a richness of the knowledge of world history. I was particularly delighted to meet such a distinguished scholar in the foreign service of our dear nation. He had humbly come to Melbourne from his base in Canberra, the Federal Capital City of Australia to celebrate the Nigerian Independence anniversary with the Nigerian Society of Victoria. I was very impressed to see how he patiently sat through the lengthy ceremonies that later took place at Arthur Wren Hall, Hampton Park.
The main event was attended by so many Nigerian families. I noticed that a lot of Nigerians living in Australia were married to white Australians, especially our men. And these wives looked very happy and comfortable with our culture. The Nigerians here looked like one big family unlike what we usually found elsewhere. The big event was attended by the Mayor who gave a solidarity speech after our High Commissioner had given his pep talk. I was happy to learn that most Nigerians in Australia are highly-skilled professionals and they are migrants doing very well in their chosen careers. According to Professor Agbi, Australia is probably the only country in the world where about 95 per cent of our people are mainly employed in professional jobs. He said he was pleasantly surprised to discover that there were about 71 well rated Nigerian doctors in Perth alone. Nigerian academics are also very influential in many of the Australian universities. “It is uncommon here to hear of Nigerians being detained for fraud, drug offences, or prostitution, unlike in Greece where I was sadly informed there were about 2,000 Nigerian girls in the business of prostitution,” said Professor Agbi.
The High Commissioner pleaded with Nigerians to do away with the negative attitude of self-doubt. He said, like the great philosopher, Rene Descartes, Nigerians were in the terrible habit of doubting everything, including their own existence. Before any step is taken, we are already projecting the failure of that step. We doubt every government policy, when all it requires is for all of us to contribute our own quota towards the successful realisation of that policy. He said the people in power are also human beings who cannot know, or do it all. He complained very passionately that Nigerians living abroad hardly take the many advantages available to them by working closely with their home government. “We do not even have a comprehensive data of how many Nigerians live in these countries. They only come to us when they need a passport to travel, or a visa to Nigeria. We see or hear of most people only when they get into one trouble or the other,” he said.
He advised Nigerians living abroad to take advantage of the Yar’Adua administration because of the new simplicity in governance. He said this government is determined and committed to righting the many wrongs of the past. He said his office was available to welcome all Nigerians and assist them in ensuring that they can discover the vast opportunities now available to them, not just in their country of residence but also at home.
I was later invited to talk to the large gathering on the quiet revolution going on in Nigeria. I spoke with great delight about the improvements taking place back home. Yes, we’ve had our fair share of problems but Nigerians have learnt to move on positively, with or without government. I said the private sector is bubbling with ideas and creativity. Many of our solid banks are designing many projects that target Nigerians living abroad. The sad cases of people stealing your money while pretending to be building houses on their behalf are fast disappearing, because very good banks have established mortgage departments. The Nigerian banking sector has really come of age, and I’m aware that one of our global banks, United Bank for Africa, only recently travelled to India, led by Tony Elumelu, their young and dynamic Group Managing Director, to study how the Indian banks, especially the ICICI, India’s leading private sector bank that took non-resident Indian banking to the level it is today, and helped to create wealth at home by working closely with Indians abroad. Our situation is very similar to that of the Indians, who can be found everywhere in the world. Our retail banking is now where it was in India ten years ago. The Indians are extremely brilliant and gifted like Nigerians. They have a superb movie industry. Bollywood is only second to Hollywood, just like our own Nollywood is now a world-wide phenomenon.
We don’t live on trees as many foreigners in the West would want to believe. I gave an example of a Nigerian living in America whose daughter came back from school to tell her father, “I really pity your mum in Nigeria because I was told people live on trees.” The Nigerian man was so enraged that he charged like a wounded bull at his American wife asking if she was the one polluting the mind of their daughter against Africa. The poor lady told her husband she knew nothing about it, and suggested that her husband should go home in Nigeria and bring back some photographs of how people live. The man travelled to Nigeria and during his visit came across an issue of Ovation, which had featured the house of gold in Maiduguri owned by the stupendously wealthy Alhaji Mai Deribe, who died a few years ago. In the same issue, he found some amazing Nigerian fashion and lifestyle articles and photographs. He could not get over the flamboyant wedding of a young Nigerian, Femi Ogundere whose groom’s men all dressed like Polo players. He returned to America armed with a copy of the magazine. He felt on top of the world. The man later got my number from the magazine and called to tell me how I had “saved his manhood”.
I encouraged them to have one leg abroad and one leg at home, and take maximum advantages of both opportunities. I spoke about my special project on Nigeria’s contributions to the world which we intend to document soon in a special Ovation publication. I pleaded for their support for a project I consider very important. We must begin to tell the world our story: that our country does not have a monopoly on crime and criminals, or violence and wanton destruction of lives and properties, or hunger and poverty, or famine and diseases, or illiteracy and ignorance, or religious bigotry and intolerance, and all the negativity they often try so hard to plaster on all of us. We must begin to sing a song of praise about our heroes who live everywhere on this planet. We must reflect this in our publications, on our radios and televisions, in our movies, and in all that we do. I recently met a Nigerian woman in Tampa, Florida, who told me how she took some copies of Ovation to her racist boss and since then she has earned respect from her colleagues in the office. Many people have told me they didn’t know SEAL and Tunde Baiyewu were Nigerians until they read about them in our magazine. Many Nigerians now proudly dress to events all over the world by using our magazine and the deluge of lifestyle publications from Nigeria as their fashion catalogues. I submitted, finally, that I have chosen to contribute Ovation to the process of our emancipation by promoting those Nigerians in all professions abroad and anyone who knows of such wonderful people should contact me by email.
Next week, I plan to paint a vivid picture of my impression of Australia and why I think God must have deliberately chosen to hide Australia from the rest of the world. It is a must read. Till then, enjoy your weekend wherever you find yourself on our planet.

Pendulum By Dele Momodu, Email: delemomodu@thisdayonline.com, 10.03.2008, Thisday

I  eventually landed in Sydney, Australia, yesterday, depending on where you live. This was a journey that originated from London Heathrow in the evening of October 1, and ended in the afternoon of October 3, Australian time. I had psyched myself to the highest level before embarking on this audacious trip. I thought I had conquered the pains of long-distance and time-changing flights but not this one. For the first time in my long list of marathon trips around the world, I definitely felt intimidated by this epic journey through different time zones.

Australia was always capable of throwing the most adventurous traveler off-balance. I had read and heard so much about this great and unique country. Indeed, it had become a dream for me to conquer Australia. It was always a matter of when and not a matter of if I’ll ever go there. As fate would have it, Ovation had been encouraged by The Heart of Africa Project of the Federal Ministry of Information to undertake a most ambitious project on Nigeria’s contributions to the world, in terms of human resources, in a five-volume collector’s item to be released soon, in our easy to read style. In over twelve years, we have traveled extensively in order to identify, and celebrate those great Nigerian men and women who would never be promoted on the covers of Hello, OK, GQ, Fortune, and the likes.

Examples abound about how Nigerians have conquered territories, and have projected our country in positive light, despite the stereotypical mindsets of the Western media that only find us worthy of attention in matters of poverty, diseases, fraud and drug trafficking. We were pleasantly surprised to discover such great Nigerians in every facet of human endeavour. In America, we met and celebrated many Nigerian doctors, singers, nurses, lawyers, property dealers, academics, bankers, engineers, scientists, writers, teachers, administrators, athletes and sportsmen and women, business tycoons, traders, politicians, social crusaders, and others. In Britain, and indeed all over Europe, we met Nigerian men and women contributing their substantial quota to the economy of Great Britain, and Europe at large. We enjoyed the same experience in nearly sixty countries covered. We met Nigerians in the smallest countries in the world, and they were as proud as the peacock. Nigerians were found to be brilliant, hard-working, ambitious, God-fearing, and largely patriotic. Nigerians abroad helped in stabilizing the Nigerian economy, and the lives of their extended families back home by remitting billions of Dollars to their loved ones through Western Union and Moneygram.

The more we came in contact with the superlative achievements of Nigerians, the more imperative it became to challenge the criminalization of, and arrest of Nigerians at most airports, as instant and prime suspects. We are not saying there were no terrible Nigerians. Many of them litter everywhere like pure water sachets. Some have convinced themselves that they can only survive on the proceeds of crime, and are unwilling to try other options. But majority of Nigerians are breaking major barriers to emerge world players. There were those who have cleaned up their acts by abandoning criminal activities for a cleaner existence. This is why we decided to expand our scope to those areas we never thought Nigerians existed in large numbers.

The journey to Australia started like a joke. A young Nigerian, Wale Olaitan, had responded to my column in THISDAY from Australia. I was moved to reply him based on his comments, and the sentiments he expressed. I had asked him what he was doing in that far-flung Continent, and I was very shocked when he informed me there were so many Nigerians like him doing their best as worthy ambassadors of our great nation. I decided to involve him in our research. As time progressed, and word spread to other Nigerians that I was interested in what Nigerians were up to in Australia, I received a letter from Mr. Yusuf Abubakar, President of the Nigerian Society of Victoria, Australia, inviting me to be a Guest Speaker at the 48th Nigerian National Day Celebration, being hosted today at the Arthur Wren Hall, in Hampton Park, on the outskirts of Melbourne. And as if to demonstrate that the long distance from home is no big deal, Nigeria’s R&B exponent Tu Face Idibia was invited to perform here. Even as you read this piece, the party would have started, because we are nine good hours ahead of Nigeria, and 14 hours ahead of New York, about 17 hours ahead of Los Angeles.

I accepted the invitation knowing there were great challenges ahead. I’m happy I did. It has afforded me the opportunity of discovering one of the greatest countries on this planet. It has also presented me the chance of picking some useful lessons for Nigeria. As I checked in at London Heathrow, I was jolted when the Virgin Atlantic lady told me I needed a visa to Australia even on my British Passport. I shouldn’t panic, she told me coolly, because she can apply for me just by swiping my passport on her system. In seconds, she announced, “your visa has been approved.” No stress, no questions asked. The service was at a cost of thirty pounds. I wondered how our tourism would ever thrive when our visa is not a simple process. American and European tourists are all trooping to South Africa despite the claims that the place is one of the most dangerous to visit in the world. The reason is simple. Visas are issued free as they land in South Africa. Please, educate me if you can, who wants to come and settle illegally in Nigeria as citizens of those developed nations? Why do we then make it difficult for visitors and investors to visit us?

I learnt the second lesson as we landed in Hong Kong, to have the airline cleaned, refueled and restocked. Our transit visa was a little sticker to our shirts upon showing our onward boarding passes to Sydney. We promptly went through security screening, and I went to the heavenly Virgin Atlantic lounge, where I refreshed, and had a most wonderful lunch. Within two hours on ground we were ready to fly again. Hong Kong lived up to its billing as one of the cleanest cities on earth. Show me your airport, and I’ll tell what your country is, was my conclusion. The airport was sparkling like a million stars. The shops were alluring and inviting. The world famous brands competed for attention. There were neatly-dressed ladies standing everywhere to assist the passengers. We were not left at the mercy of touts and area boys. It sadly reminded me of one of our most recent airports back home, the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, in Abuja. Pardon me please, that airport is a big insult to the memory of the great statesman, The Owelle of Onitsha. Someone should kindly spare us the disgrace of the wosiwosi (scrappy shops) in that place. Our leaders should stop portraying us as a nation of shameless people and idiots. Our ministers who all go to shop in Knightsbridge and Rodeo Drive can’t tell me they don’t know that we deserve a better deal. They are just too selfish to care about their country. Our airports say so much about us. It does not require too much money to fix. It only requires a more sincere and focused leadership. I plead with President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua to rescue our country from the grip of public servants with powerful godfathers and no performance.

We flew for another nine hours to Sydney, a city made famous by the Olympics it hosted. I had really looked forward to this great moment in my journey. My love for certain countries and cities are often determined by how friendly or nasty the immigration and customs officers are. America is usually the worst. There, you are made to feel always like a criminal. London is the best city on earth. You can enter two or more times in a day, and you will never feel harassed. This must be one of the reasons tourism is the biggest income-earner in Great Britain. In America, if you visit twice in a month, you’ll be asked what is bringing into their country so frequently.

I didn’t expect the Australians to be so pleasant based on some of the questions on their landing cards. The questions include if you’ve visited Africa or South America in the last six days, which I couldn’t understand. Well, since I hadn’t been in seven days, technically, I escaped whatever their reason for asking. I didn’t even spend more than one minute at immigration and the customs woman was even quicker. She wanted to know if I carried any food, and my answer was a prompt No, and she stamped me out. As much as I enjoy some of those odoriferous African foods like dry fish, stockfish, dawadawa, ogi, our vegetable leaves, my wife knows I will never carry food in my luggage. I have seen some of our women as they turned aircrafts into Mammy markets, by terrorizing the nostrils of fellow passengers with all manner of condiments, and spilling palm oil all over the airport in London. It was always an ugly sight.

Again, the Sydney airport looked great. This could be seen as our Airbus 340-600 was about to touch down. A major part around the airport was covered by water, and this gave a picturesque image. The waiting area at arrival was busy with families and friends of passengers, but it still looked beautiful. I followed the signs to domestic departures, where I was booked to fly to Melbourne, my ultimate destination. All I needed was my passport to retrieve my e-ticket. In less than two minutes, I was able to change my connecting flight on Qantas Airline from 11am to an earlier one at 9am. I whisked through security screening that led unto a waiting vehicle. Here again, I learnt a lesson for Nigeria. The bus actually drove us from the international wing through the tarmac to the domestic. This opened my eyes to the resolution of the Virgin Nigeria versus Federal Government of Nigeria imbroglio on its relocation to Murtala Mohammed II. Transit route should be created for all connecting passengers from the domestic to the international after due security screening. It would be very terrible if connecting passengers are made to hit the streets like they are subjected to do at this moment.

As we landed finally in Melbourne, I whispered to myself, free at last, and walked out briskly, into the arms of the three wonderful Nigerians, who were already waiting to pick me to my hotel, in the centre of the city.
To be continued