Honestly, I do not know from where to start but let me just begin by saying that this post is all about the topic. I reside in one of the Asian countries where I've been for over 5 years and all through my stay in this country I've not had the need or reason to invite anyone to Nigeria. In the course of my staying here, I made friends with lots of people. Someone contacted me from Nigeria that a friend of his would like to attend his wedding and considering the fact that I am a legal resident here, he felt I might be able to help with the visa and immigration procedures. The friend who shares my first name met me and we set off with the whole thing. We were directed to the Nigerian Immigration website for the visa application. We couldn't proceed further because of the payment method which wouldn't display and as such we called the embassy several times with the same response "we are not allowed to touch cash, you can only pay online". Running out of time, we searched for Nigerian embassies and their contacts online. We visited this site http://www.fsc-nigeria.org/dir_nigmissions.html, and mailed the Nigerian Embassy in Damascus, below is the mail that was sent, unedited except for the email for obvious reasons, please note that the Nigerian embassy in Damascus is the 34th on the list,check the email ID;


----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Ambrose DDDDDDDDD <xxxxxxxxx@yahoo.com>
To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxx@yahoo.com
Sent: Thu, April 16, 2009 12:39:57 PM
Subject: VISA ENQUIRY/PAYMENT/SUBMISSION. OF APPLICATION

The Officer-in-Charge,
Consular section,
Embassy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

                                                    VISA ENQUIRY/PAYMENT/SUBMISSION.

Dear Sir/Ma'am,

I plan to visit the city of Benin in Nigeria sometime in the first week of July, 2009. I'm a legal resident here and the purpose of my visit is to attend a former course mate's wedding. I'm from Bloemfontein, South Africa. My questions are as below,

1. My trip is slated for July, when is the appropriate time to apply for the visa?
2. How long does it take to be issued an interview date after applying and making payment online?
3. How long does it take to issue the visa?
4. Is the visa payable only online or there's provision for payment of visa at the embassy?
5. Do you require flight reservation or flight ticket?

Thanks for your anticipated response.

Ambrose.
16-04-2009.

Some days later, this reply came with the attached file,[/b][/i][/i][/b]

re:visa enquiry/payment/submission of application
,
Tue, April 21, 2009 5:47:53 PM
From:EMBASSY OF NIGERIA <nigeriadamascus@yahoo.com>  
To: xxxxxxxxx@yahoo.com


visa enquiry, payment and submission.tif (1179KB)
Attention Ambrose

Please find attached letter for your information.

Embassy of Nigeria
Damascus
Syria.
21st April, 2009

We didn't respond to that but the gentleman got the visa and attended the wedding. He returned and was full of appreciation but just today, he ran to me and showed me another email from the Nigerian embassy in Damascus, the mail is as given below;

Urgent Response

Fri, December 11, 2009 12:21:48 PM
From: EMBASSY OF NIGERIA <nigeriadamascus@yahoo.com>
.
To: xxxxxxxxx@yahoo.com
Did you get my previous message ,I sent you an email some hours ago,I left for Nigeria and i was robbed on my way to the hotel please can you learn me $3500 today i will return it as soon as i arrive.You can send it  through Western Union with my information below

Receivers Name: Yusuf Usman

location/Address: 33 Bishop Crowther Street,
Lagos , Nigeria ,23401

Use this as the secret text question and answer:

Text question: who is the receiver?

Text answer: Yusuf

I will wait to get the Western Union senders details with the MTCN number.Please take this as urgent.

Thanks


I felt really bad about this-with the constant shoulder rubbing between Nigeria and South Africa, this is just appalling. There are news about how a minuscule proportion of Nigerians are into scamming people which has affected our image all over the world but it is more disturbing and worrying that this act will come from the only thing that represents Nigeria officially. The embassy is  "NIGERIA" in the sense of country to country relationships.

I have decided to post here for all to see. I was going to send this to the Nigeria Immigration Service at first but quickly remembered that the system there might not allow for proper investigation. I await there explanation on this and for the avoidance of doubts, I am willing to forward the correspondence to anyone.

The e-mail was hacked, that much is obvious.