That’s so funny … your ip address is in Lagos, Nigeria LOL

GET A JOB or at the very least have the common decency to request aid money from the good hearted people you communicate with, instead of stealing from them.

Secondly, if you see your self as coming from a “rich” country, then what the hell is a pocket change like one thousand dollars or pounds to you. It is wicked people like you that will prefare to let ” crumbs” from your table go to the dogs than really “change” the life of “poor’ citizen by giving him/her “8 yrs basic living allowance”.

You are actually looking at the world from one side of the coin. If ever you get the opportunity to view things from more than one perspective, then belive me a little wisdom will come to your disfigured bloated head.

Hi Kate
Are you for real?
Relationship should not be based on paying some amount.
Honestly it was a trap set by someone pretending to be looking for an employee, promising a good job in UK, offering a better life, etc.
I’m so not pleased with your statement. Hope you guys get K A R M A.

Regardless of what you guys are writing still you do not do the same to innocent people. Its cycle.

Wow how many times have I heard people in poor countries say victims deserve it for being stupid .. as though that makes stealing their life savings or getting them into debt so you can drag yourself out of poverty acceptable.

Of course, people in third world countries believe we can simply go out to the garden and pick more off the money tree and their hard life doesn’t allow them the same high moral ground we sit on but that still does not excuse the actions of these thieves.

It’s sad that you feel so deeply for the young vulnerable women who are victims of fraud in Nigeria but the vulnerable people in the West are simply considered stupid. Vulnerable victims are simply that, no matter where they are.

I accept your point and yes theft and corruption goes on all over the world but I can’t spend my life tackling every part of it, although I wish I could. This blog is trying to bring the BTA scam to the attention of potential victims around the world. You and I both know BTA doesn’t exist so that’s the message of this post, if you are asked for large sums of BTA money don’t pay it and cease communication with the person, they ARE a scammer.

What they do at Lagos airport is pick the vulnerable looking ones, always young Nigerian women on their own, and then come out with the hoary old BTA line to force them to empty their pockets and then they take a cut. If if you only have a small amount they take the lot – thats what happened both to my wife and to her cousin shortly afterwards. People who dont comply get detained on a trumped up charge and are only released when the flight has left. I personally know of two members of my Nigerian family that this has happened to.

I never said that anyone asked her for $5000. Im just saying that Nigerians are victims of fraud too – the difference being they get it every day and from every official they meet. Anyone here in the west who gets such a request for money from a person they never met and believes it frankly deserves all they get – thats not corruption it just stupidity.

To suggest that the plight of some idiot in the west who sends money to a person he never met in Nigeria because of a pretty looking picture on the net is anything like that of the average struggling Nigerian is simply insulting.

Thanks for your input and I feel so sorry for your sister in law and anyone used by corrupt officials but you seem to be missing the point.

Of course residents of poor countries are victims of official corruption but the amounts are nowhere near the amounts being asked for by scammers for BTA, usually between $2000 and $5000 or £1000 to £4000 pounds sterling.

I have lived in the African continent and the maximum bribe I had to pay to officials was £500 sterling but that was to a top government official to get my company formation papers finished quickly .. of course that amount was because I am European. Local people, particularly the poor, are never charged such silly amounts for bribes.

The idea that a police or government official would stand in an airport and demand a bribe of $5000 is simply laughable .. that’s over 750,000 Nigerian Nairas and you can buy a second hand Mercedes Benz for less than 1,500,000 Nairas from a dealer – “2002 MBENZ C240 N1.5M with leather seats (1,500,000 Negotiable)”

You haven’t said how much your sister in law was asked for or whether she had any cash on her at all to travel, as many poor countries will stop travellers from boarding planes if they don’t have any cash on them at all.

One thing I did learn very quickly over there was to pay something, this shuts them up and you go on your way, if you pay nothing they will find something wrong with your papers and keep you there until your flight or whatever has gone. It’s not right but it happens and you just have to get on with it until the people of the country decide to change it.

To be fair if a Nigerian friend asked me to send them £25 in case they had to pay a bribe at the airport I would have no hesitation in sending it but if they asked for £250 I wouldn’t send it and would have a long look at who I consider to be my friends. That is the difference here, the people asking for large amounts for BTA have no intention of leaving Nigeria and are simply stealing from people .. it’s so much easier than working for a living!!

Im British and live here with my Nigerian wife.

It is VERY common for Nigerian women travelling alone out of the country to be stopped by officials at Lagos airport who demand to see a “BTA”. If you dont have it they wont let you on the flight. They tried this scam on my wife, her sister and her cousin (all at different times). All three only managed to leave the country by giving the officials money for this fictious “BTA”.

Today, about 5 hours ago, wife’s youngest sister tried to board a KLM flight for the holiday of a lifetime in Holland, where her fiance lives. She didnt have any money on her, so they refused to let her on the flight. Her ticket is non-refundable and she dosnt have any money to buy another one. Nobody in the airport would help her and KLM refused to get involved. She saved up for a whole year for that trip.

She is now sitting in the entrance hall in floods of tears, while her luggage is on the flight to Amsterdam. Nobody there gives a damn, as she isnt from a rich family.

NIGERIANS ARE VICTIMS TO0 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’m so sorry to hear about your friend and of course it will take time for her to accept that bad things happen togod people. It also drives me crazy that people usually find this site once they have already paid out money, I wish I could reach them before they pay money to these scammers.

Please just keep reminding your friend that even governments have been fooled by conmen, so why should ordinary people also not be fooled. It will hurt her when people ask about her application but in a short time they will stop asking and she can begin putting it in her past.

hi sally
your website is really helpful. however, i think for my friend is not for she was a victim of scam such as posted in hte site.
She has already paid some amount thru Western Union thinking that she would be flying immediately.
now she could not recover from this embarrassing situation. she had place her life savings down the drain. although she is actively working. she quickly gets angry whenever someone asks her about her application overseas.
i feel pitty for her. i wonder why situation allow this scammers to continunously hurt honest people working their way to establish their future.