Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Nigeria

P.S. I'll find my phone. Who took my phone.

Drexen — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:44:32 -0800

UK phone fraud: Someone stole my phone and rang up £3000 of calls to Nigeria. The phone company says it's my fault for not keeping tabs on the phone and I have to pay it. Is there anything I can do? I'm with O2. I got the phone with my 12-month contract but hadn't been using it, because I preferred the usability of my old Pay-As-You-Go Nokia... so when the new phone went missing on 18th May I didn't notice. I made a call on 18th (Sunday) and then the thief started making calls on 19th, continuing until 23rd May. In that time they made 60 hours of calls, some to Nigerian numbers, some to UK mobiles and landlines.

I discovered what had happened last night when I got a notice that O2 had tried to take £3,042.86 out of my account (it bounced, because I don't have the money). I called them up for advice and they told me I was liable for the whole amount as "we expect customers to contact us as soon as they realise their phone has been stolen," and that I'd have to pay it back within 6 months. The best they could do was refer me to a debt collection agency who would offer longer payback terms with less to pay per month. I told them I'd have to talk to the police before I committed to anything like that.

I phoned the police, who took the details and said they'd pass them on to the phone investigation team. However, the operator seemed pretty ambivalent about whether they'd give me a crime reference number as "the question is, why didn't you notice the phone was missing?" At this point I thought the phone must have been taken around the start of June and told her as such. Now they're supposed to get back to me in the next 72 hours.

After that I phoned O2 again to ask them to send me a list of calls, and to check whether they'd barred the phone, which they had. I checked my statement online and saw the details about the calls that I listed above.

So: Is there anything I can do about this? Am I really liable for this fraud? Surely it wouldn't be the case if this was a credit card. Is there some regulating body I can complain to? Should I talk to a lawyer? Just refuse to pay up? Or am I screwed? I can barely afford this, and that's assuming they give me a long payment term without much extra interest to pay.

Should I call the Secret Service over credit card fraud?

uvaleg — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 06:14:22 -0800

My credit card info was stolen by someone in Nigeria. Should I contact the Secret Service? Two days before New Year's Day, I got a call from my credit card company asking me to verify some recent purchases. Turns out, they weren't mine. After some research, I learned that the purchases had been made by someone with a Nigerian IP address, to be shipped to someone in Nebraska, with a Texas billing address--I live in Virginia. Fraud department types at my credit card company and the online store suggested I file a police report. At first, I thought that was silly--the thief is in Nigeria. But then I decided that these people will never be stopped unless someone tries to do something about it.

So, I called my local police department. They told me to call the FBI, as they have no jurisdiction in this situation. After some hesitation, I called the FBI. They told me to call Secret Service. And then I quit. What does the Secret Service care about little old me, and the $7000 in purchases that I am not responsible for?

My question for you is, should I call the Secret Service? I've seen enough episodes of Dateline NBC to feel like something should be done about this sort of thing, but I feel naive in thinking that this small offense warrants a call to such an elite operation as the Secret Service...

I want to cross 3 more countries off my list.

allkindsoftime — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 01:09:06 -0800

Driving from Accra, Ghana to Lagos, Nigeria, and back...bad idea? I'll be working in Ghana for a week in late January of next year. I am interested in stuff to see, but more interested in seeing a few of the neighboring countries.

My current plan is to head east - hit Lome, Togo, then on to Porto-Novo, Benin, and from there to Lagos, Nigeria. Right now I’m thinking drive Saturday morning / early afternoon, taking some time to see Togo / Benin, stay in Lagos Saturday night, drive back Sunday (have to fly out Sunday night).

Questions so far:
- It looks to be a little under 300 miles. Are the roads good enough to assume a 50mph average (i.e. 6 hours drive time)?
- Is it a relatively safe route? I'm particularly concerned about Nigeria - will I run into bribing, etc.? Tips? Places to stay in Lagos?
- Anything of particular interest I shouldn't miss along my planned route?
- Visas / fees to be aware of? (Work will be covering the Ghana one, so I need to handle the other 3)
- Anything else?

Thanks...

Gift ideas for a new PhD moving to Africa

parkerjackson — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 10:36:25 -0800

Any ideas for what a new faculty member (who has to transport everything to Africa) might find useful or nice as a graduation gift from her research lab? The senior grad student in my lab just finished her PhD in Educational Psychology and is moving to Africa to take an academic job where she’ll be setting up Christian educational programs (which incidentally is not related to our lab work). Our advisor wants me to come up with a graduation gift we can give her. He’s thinking something engraved and formal that she might leave in the US, I’m thinking something practical but formal that she could take with her.

She’s very down-to-earth, not into TV or pop culture or having lots of stuff. She'll be living in a largish Nigerian city with an American family. What kind of gift would you suggest for such a person?

Extreme Makeover: Nigeria Edition?

dkleinst — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 15:17:14 -0800

I was looking at the CNET site about the new OLPC laptops that were delivered to a village in Nigeria, and was shocked to see what appear to be McMansion-esque buildings in the background. Can anyone explain this?

Shoe money?

bchaplin — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 04:13:57 -0800

Should I store emergency money in my shoe when I travel? I travel to Nigeria for work -- sometimes to Lagos. It can be a dangerous place at certain times and in certain circumstances, though no one in our group has ever experienced problems, because we take a lot of precautions. But one coworker told me that whenever he goes to a third world country, in addition to his travel wallet, which he wears underneath his clothes, he always keeps a spare bill in his shoe. If he was robbed and separated from the group, he's have enough to get a cab, or transport to the Embassy.

Is this too extreme an idea? I've traveled to Africa three times now, and frankly couldn't even bring myself to wear a hidden wallet, mostly because I sweat like a pig in hot climates. If I carried money in my shoe for even a day, I'm sure it would be in no condition to ever use again. (I ended up taking a small purse, and keeping a close eye on it.) Do other 3rd world travelers really wear 'shoe money'? How do they keep it dry?

The meaning of GOC

rabbitsnake — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 16:08:22 -0800

What is a GOC? I am reading Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, which concerns the Nigerian revolution in the late 60s and early 70s. I am half way through the novel and am a little confused by one of the political terms. The quote is by Major Madu, one of the leaders of pre-revolution army.

"I was part of the comission that told our GOC that we should scrap it, that it was polarizing the army, that they should stop promoting Northerners who were not qualified. But our GOC said no, our British GOC."

I googled and found mentions of the term, but I didn't find an explanation of it. Anybody?

Where to find Nigerian movies?

j.s.f. — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 12:06:03 -0800

Where can I go in New York to get Nollywood films on DVD? What should I get? And should I be so overcautious/xenophobic to pay in cash? I first read about the new Nigerian film (i.e. video) industry in a paper (pdf) delivered at the last Documenta. Then I read in the Guardian about the English guy who went to Lagos to get his film made on the cheap. And when one of my best friends told me that she spent three hours in a braiding salon watching a no-budget Igbo remake of Die Hard, I decided that I had to start watching some of these films.

I have found one place online to buy Nigerian videos, but since I'm a total beginner I'd really prefer to go to a store and talk to someone. What's more, perhaps I'm being overly cautious, even jingoistic, but for a country whose third-largest industry is scamming old people out of their savings, I'm a little concerned about using my credit card.

I'm in New York and imagine that there's enough demand from the immigrant population to have a store somewhere.