From Uche Usim, Abuja
The Internet is a habitat for diverse creatures. While it is a melting pot of great ideas and innovations, it also habours criminals who are constantly on the prowl hunting for prey.
Some of the potent baits online predators use to defraud the unsuspecting public are loan schemes that mimic various intervention programmes of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and other agencies.
For instance, the apex bank has multiple intervention loans crafted to help boost the economy via bankable entrepreneurship ideas.
Some of them are the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme, Nigeria Youth Investment Fund and Tertiary Institutions Entrepreneurship Scheme, among others. They cut across various sectors of the economy.
So, what the cyber criminals do is to clone these sites and use them to scam greedy and ignorant people.
Victims have been ruined for life as the scammers bilked them of they’re worth.
Some of the survivors are literally living on ventilators at various hospitals’ intensive care units.
So, how can one distinguish authentic websites from fake ones?
Visit any commercial bank
You don’t have to own an account before you walk into any bank and request information on existing intervention programmes and determine the ones you can participate in. They will also determine your eligibility, furnish you with the terms and conditions and repayment plan. Any ambiguous area will be ground to granular details.
Call or send emails to banks or the CBN
If you can’t make it…
