CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Crime remains pervasive and forever strives to hide itself in the face of development. As measures and techniques for detecting crimes and criminals advance, criminals also look for means of hiding from these measures.
Obano (2007:17) asserts that the internet currently serve as a hiding place for fraudsters who have simply migrated from the streets to an electronic platform.
Okonigini (2002:25) defines computer crime as criminal activities, involving information technology infrastructure, including illegal access of computer data from or within a computer.
Similarly, Asokhia (2003:49) asserts that cyber crime, popularly called “YAHOO” is an off-shoot of advance fee fraud which became popular in the early 90s. Today, it has produced “YAHOO” as its first offspring with mostly young people (most especially the unemployed) as its practitioners.
Different nations have adopted different strategies to contend with crimes depending on their nature and extent. Certainly, a nation with high incidence of crime cannot grow or develop. For Nigeria, a nation in the process of saving her face regarding cyber crimes, efforts are now being directed at the sources and channels through which cyber crimes are being perpetuated the most. [Chiemeke (2008:32)].
Martins (2008:47) assert that “YAHOOISM” is an act of cyber crime that defrauds unsuspecting victims in foreign countries of their hard-earned money. In some instance, the unsuspecting victim is used to defraud banks, postal agencies, shops, etc. the yahoos (perpetrator) sends fake cheque or postal money orders to victims in any of the following countries: Canada, United States of America and other European countries or Asia as the case may be.
He further notes that when the cheques or money order are cashed, the victim is told to send the money through Western Union Money transfer in Nigeria, while in other cases, the victim is told to send the money to another country where the yahooist has built networks over time.
The mode of money collection is usually dependent on the modus operandi the yahooist uses. In similar vein, Alemika (2007:15) notes that in Nigeria today, cyber crime has found its root in the society. Like a cankerworm it has eaten deeply in the society and finally been accepted by the same society.
It is difficult to deny youth support of the menace with yahooze shirts, yahooze dance steps, yahooze songs from the likes of Olu Maintain. Even some young people identify themselves as yahoo boys and girls.
Similarly, Martins (2008:43) notes that the paramount classification of yahooism as a branch of cyber crime and transitional crime is not only expedient in understanding its mystery, but propounding a lasting solution when considering curbing the menace. Yahooism is the fastest growing transnational crime in recent times, especially in Nigeria.