Greetings to all. I am doing a social study about internet scammers and I am trying to understand better about the lifestyle of Nigerian cyber scammers in general. Basically, I want to try and get a better understanding of their living and working conditions in Lagos and the internet cafes around Festac Town. I realize many are very poor, and some live under pretty harsh conditions, but I was wondering if anyone has actually observed first hand in Lagos and seen some of the working setups?

I have seen a few video clips on YouTube of arrests and raids in the internet cafes, but what I am trying to get more of an understanding of is how the structure amongst the scammers works. How the scammers work, either in gangs/groups or by themselves, what tools they are given from the start by an Oga or Chairman when they are just getting started in scamming, what role the Oga really plays in their day to day life (if any), how the initial bites on the scam letters are divvied out to the scammers, when the Oga might step in on an ongoing scam and take over the scam, what the expectations are from the Oga if he is providing laptops and a place to work for young men to work as a scammer who have nothing of their own, how much English most of them really speak, the average age of an internet cafe scammer, and so on. And do most of these scammers also hold other menial jobs to help keep them afloat in between receiving earnings from scamming? Basically, just a good overall understanding of the situation on the ground there I guess.

Many thanks for any input you might be able to share.