Age

29

Occupation

Former Internet Fraudster

Currently runs a small digital business and online services

Location

Undisclosed

Rent

₦850k

Peak Monthly Income

₦30M

Current Savings

₦6.5M

How did you first get exposed to fraud culture?

Where I grew up, it didn’t even feel unusual anymore. You’d suddenly see young guys around you start living completely different lives overnight. Better phones, designer clothes, apartments, cars, expensive outings. After a while, people stopped acting shocked because everybody already knew what was probably happening even if nobody said it directly.

At first, I judged it from a distance like everybody else. But when you stay around something long enough and you’re also struggling financially, your mindset starts shifting quietly without you noticing immediately. Especially when the people doing it seem happier than you, more comfortable than you, more respected than you.

At some point, it stopped looking wrong and started looking like an escape route.

What was your financial life like before that period?

Frustrating. Not extreme poverty or anything like that, but I constantly felt behind financially and that feeling affects the way you see yourself after a while. You start comparing your life to people around you, overthinking every small expense, feeling embarrassed by normal struggles because social media makes it look like everybody else is moving faster than you.

There was a period where I hated asking anybody for help because it made me feel small internally, and when that frustration sits inside somebody for too long, shortcuts start looking softer than they should.

What finally made you cross that line?

Desperation mixed with curiosity. I had reached a point where struggling started feeling repetitive and emotionally exhausting, and when you’re surrounded by people constantly making fast money, your brain slowly starts normalizing things you once believed you’d never do.

That’s the dangerous thing about environment. Repeated exposure changes your reactions gradually. At first something shocks you, then eventually it just starts looking normal because everybody around you is benefiting from it openly and still living fine.

I kept telling myself it was temporary at the beginning, like I would make some money quickly and move on with my life, but fast money rarely stays temporary once it changes your lifestyle.

Do you remember your first successful payment?

Very clearly.

I remember staring at my account balance repeatedly because the money genuinely didn’t feel real to me. At that point in my life, I had never seen money come that fast before.

For the first time in a long time, I felt powerful. Important. Ahead. Suddenly things that used to stress me financially stopped looking impossible anymore and my entire mindset started changing almost immediately.

Once somebody experiences that kind of emotional high suddenly, normal life starts feeling painfully slow afterward.

What changed about you after money started coming in?

Everything. My confidence changed immediately, the way I dressed changed, the way people responded to me changed too and that gets into your head very quickly when you’re young.

For the first time in my life, I felt noticed differently and I enjoyed that feeling too much. I started enjoying being perceived as successful. The attention, the reactions, the lifestyle.

After a while, I became addicted to validation before I even became addicted to the money itself.

What kind of lifestyle were you living then?

Very excessive. Clubs, designer clothes, expensive perfumes, random spending, trips, unnecessary flexing, buying things impulsively just because I could.

And the dangerous thing about fast money is that your brain stops respecting money properly because you genuinely believe more money will always come back again. Recklessness starts feeling normal.

At the time it didn’t even feel irresponsible to me, it just felt like I was finally enjoying life properly after struggling for too long.

Did the money actually make you happy?

At first, yes. Or at least I thought it did because when somebody has struggled financially for a long time, sudden money feels like freedom. Problems disappear faster, people treat you differently, life becomes softer.

But after a while, the excitement started fading and that confused me mentally because from the outside my life looked better financially, but internally I was becoming more restless instead of calmer.

What changed when the excitement faded?

Paranoia. I became mentally restless all the time because once your lifestyle is built on something unstable, part of your brain never fully relaxes.

You become suspicious, guarded, hyperaware. Even when I was outside having fun, part of my mind stayed tense constantly. That lifestyle drains people mentally in ways outsiders don’t really understand.

I started noticing that even around people, I never fully felt at peace anymore.

Did relationships feel real during that period?

Not completely. Once money enters your life quickly, you stop knowing who genuinely likes you for you and who likes the lifestyle attached to you.

Friendships become strange. Relationships become transactional. Even kindness starts feeling suspicious sometimes. After a while, everybody started feeling transactional to me.

And the crazy thing is that the more money came in, the less emotionally safe I actually felt.

Did love feel real during that period?

Not really.

After a while, I stopped believing people could genuinely like me without the lifestyle attached somehow. If somebody suddenly became more interested in me after money entered my life, part of my brain automatically wondered whether they actually liked me or just the version of life around me.

Eventually you stop knowing the difference yourself. That period damaged the way I viewed emotional connection for a long time because deep down, I stopped feeling emotionally safe around people anymore.

Was there a point where the lifestyle stopped feeling exciting?

Definitely. There’s a stage where fast money stops feeling exciting and starts feeling empty instead.

You buy things and the excitement disappears quickly. You go out constantly but still feel restless internally. You’re surrounded by people all the time but still feel lonely somehow.

That shift scared me because the same lifestyle that once felt exciting started feeling draining instead.

What was the darkest period for you emotionally?

Isolation. There was a period where I became emotionally disconnected from almost everybody around me and the scary thing is that from the outside, my life still looked financially good.

But internally I was exhausted. I wasn’t sleeping properly, I was anxious constantly, always mentally alert, always overthinking. Eventually even silence started feeling uncomfortable because my brain never rested properly anymore.

Was there a moment that really shook you?

Yes. Somebody very close to me got picked up one time and I remember the fear that entered everybody around us afterward.

For the first time, the lifestyle stopped feeling exciting completely and started feeling fragile instead. Until then, part of me still believed bad things only happened to other people.

That experience broke the illusion for me.

Did anything like that ever happen to you personally?

Yes, and I think that experience finally broke whatever illusion I still had left mentally about the lifestyle.

Before then, there was still a part of me that treated getting picked up like something that happened to other people. Even though deep down everybody knew the risk was always there, you still somehow convince yourself you’ll avoid it.

Then one day it became my reality too.

What happened?

It was an EFCC raid.

There had already been tension around during that period because people were getting picked up more often, especially young guys living flashy lifestyles. Everybody was already moving carefully, changing locations often, hiding things, staying alert.

But after a while people become comfortable again and start feeling untouchable.

The apartment we were in had already started attracting attention because of how people were moving there constantly. Too many expensive cars, too many different guys coming in and out, odd hours, loud spending. Things that feel normal inside that lifestyle start looking suspicious to outsiders very quickly.

Then very early one morning, they came. Loud banging on the gate, confusion everywhere, everybody suddenly trying to hide phones and laptops or act normal. But once that kind of situation starts, nobody is thinking about flexing anymore.

I just remember how quiet everybody became afterward. Fear changes the atmosphere very quickly.

And in moments like that, you suddenly realize how fast your life can move from enjoyment to survival.

What were they saying they were looking for?

Internet fraud activity mostly. Phones, laptops, transactions, conversations, anything suspicious.

At that point, nobody was really asking too many questions because once people heard EFCC, panic already entered the room immediately. Some people were trying to act calm, some were denying things, some just stayed quiet.

Everything became very tense very quickly.

Where were you taken to?

At first, the police headquarters in the area. Then later we were transferred to the EFCC Lagos office for proper questioning. That was when everything started feeling real properly because before then, part of my brain was still hoping maybe it was just confusion and everybody would go home.

But once they started collecting phones, laptops, devices, and separating people for questioning, the atmosphere changed completely.

The first day was the worst mentally because nobody could really contact anybody properly at first. Everybody was just sitting there overthinking quietly.

And when you’re in that kind of environment, time starts moving differently. Your mind starts racing constantly. Prison starts sounding real. Your future starts sounding uncertain. Everything suddenly feels fragile.

How did you eventually get out?

The next day they mentioned bail, around ₦200k. Some people around me got released earlier because their people moved quickly, but mine took longer because my mum had to travel down herself.

That phone call to her was probably one of the hardest conversations I’ve ever had in my life because at first I genuinely didn’t even know how to explain what had happened or where to start from.

I just remember hearing the disappointment in her voice even though she was still trying to stay calm. And when she finally came and saw me there physically, I could see it on her face too. She didn’t need to say much.

That moment broke something in me honestly because for the first time, I stopped seeing the lifestyle as just “my life” or “my choices.” I started seeing the burden it was placing on people who genuinely cared about me.

That was the moment I told myself I didn’t want to keep living like that anymore.

Did you ever feel physically unsafe around that lifestyle?

Many times.

That environment attracts a lot of paranoia because money, ego, and insecurity are constantly mixed together. People become suspicious easily. Friendships become unstable. Everybody is watching everybody.

I’ve seen people get robbed by people they considered friends. I’ve seen people disappear financially overnight because somebody close to them set them up. I’ve seen fights escalate dangerously because of money and ego.

That lifestyle makes trust difficult because deep down, everybody knows greed is already in the room.

And once greed enters friendships heavily, things can become dangerous very quickly.

What do you remember most about that period?

Coming back home after those two nights and suddenly realizing how tired I actually was mentally.

I remember sitting quietly in the dark for a very long time after I got back. No music. No TV. Nothing. The house was completely silent, but my mind wasn’t.

And for the first time in years, there was no excitement left underneath the lifestyle anymore. No adrenaline. No enjoyment. Just exhaustion.

I started replaying everything in my head. The fear. The tension. The people around me. The way my life had slowly become built around survival, performance, and pretending I was okay mentally when I really wasn’t.

That was probably the first night I stopped romanticizing the lifestyle completely.

Because once you sit alone quietly after something like that, you start seeing things more honestly. And deep down, I already knew something inside me had changed permanently.

Do you feel like the lifestyle cost you anything long-term?

Definitely. Time most importantly.

Because while I was chasing fast money and living recklessly, life was still moving normally for other people. People were building real careers, stable relationships, businesses, discipline, peace of mind.

And the scary thing about fast money is that it can make you feel like you’re ahead temporarily while you’re actually becoming stuck in other parts of life without realizing it.

There are things I’m trying to rebuild now that I probably wouldn’t have damaged if I had chosen differently earlier.

Was there anything that made you afraid of staying in that life long-term?

Yes. Seeing older men still trapped inside it.

At some point, I started meeting people who had spent years in that lifestyle and were still mentally restless, still paranoid, still chasing validation, still unable to live normally.

That scared me badly because I started asking myself, What if this never really ends?

I think that was one of the moments where I realized fast money can quietly become somebody’s entire identity if they’re not careful.

What does life look like for you now?

Much quieter.

These days I mostly focus on legitimate digital work and smaller business stuff. The money is slower now, obviously, and sometimes that adjustment still frustrates me mentally because once your brain gets used to fast money, normal progress feels painfully slow at first.

But at the same time, my life feels lighter now. I sleep better. I think better. My mind is calmer.

Back then, I had more money but less peace.

Do you ever miss that lifestyle?

Sometimes, especially the speed of the money and the feeling that came with it.

Fast money changes your brain badly because after experiencing that kind of lifestyle, ordinary life can feel emotionally underwhelming for a while. There are moments where you remember how easy certain things used to be financially and part of you misses that freedom.

But then I also remember the fear, the paranoia, the mental exhaustion, the constant tension underneath everything.

And suddenly it doesn’t feel worth missing anymore.

Would you ever go back to that life?

No.

Not because I suddenly became perfect overnight, but because I know what that lifestyle was slowly turning me into mentally.

There’s a version of yourself you become when your entire life revolves around fast money, performance, validation, and survival. And after a while, you stop recognizing yourself properly.

I think leaving saved me mentally more than anything else.

What would you tell somebody chasing fast money right now?

I’d tell them that fast money rarely leaves people unchanged.

Even when people escape prison or public disgrace physically, a lot of them still carry damage mentally afterward. Fear changes you. Constant paranoia changes you. Living dishonestly for too long changes you.

And the dangerous thing is that when you’re inside that lifestyle, you usually don’t notice yourself changing gradually until something finally forces you to confront it.

A lot of people chasing fast money think only about the lifestyle, not the long-term consequences. But the consequences are real. Prison is real. Violence is real. Betrayal is real. Losing yourself mentally is real too. Some people don’t even get the chance to restart because prison abroad completely changes the direction of their lives.

There’s nothing glamorous about constantly living one mistake away from destruction.

How would you describe your financial life now?

Slower… but healthier