In 2025, Africa Verify investigated over 20 scams circulating on-line in Nigeria, from Fb pages impersonating fashionable industrial banks to pretend money-doubling funding alternatives.
The dangers of falling for these scams embody dropping hard-earned cash or having private info stolen, which may then be used for id theft.
In 2026, we anticipate scams to persist, particularly as instruments powered by synthetic intelligence (AI) turn into extra extensively used. On this information, we spotlight a number of rip-off tendencies to be careful for and clarify how one can defend your self on-line.
Africa Verify has fact-checked a number of AI-generated movies utilizing the likeness of fashionable Nigerian personalities. In a single occasion, a video confirmed Aproko Physician, a preferred well being content material creator, and Taiwo Ajai-Lycett, a Nigerian actor, selling a treatment for hypertension.
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A deepfake is when somebody is impersonated utilizing AI instruments to make it seem like they’re saying or doing one thing they have not. Celebrities and public officers are sometimes focused as a result of they’re seen as credible.
This development reveals no indicators of slowing in 2026. In January, Ibukun Awosika, a preferred Nigerian enterprise government, debunked a number of AI-generated movies that appeared to point out her selling an funding platform. In February, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the director-general of the World Commerce Group, additionally warned Nigerians of an AI-generated video of her showing to advertise a non-existent funding alternative.
Rasheed Adeniyi, performing director of Fountain College‘s Centre for Analysis, Innovation and Expertise in Osun state, instructed Africa Verify that scammers have been utilizing celebrities’ identities to drive visitors or to make cash.
“Individuals utilizing AI to generate pretend pictures and movies of individuals, particularly celebrities, is a sign that they’ve discovered a brand new device to make their work sooner, simpler and extra plausible to dupe others.”
Nonetheless pictures are additionally vulnerable to manipulation. Scammers typically steal individuals’s pictures, edit them utilizing AI instruments and create new social media profiles. In January, an X person shared his expertise of this after a scammer used his photographs to solicit cash from victims on-line.
“This is among the worst durations to be careless about your footprint or on-line look, as a result of with the prevalence of AI instruments, it’s simpler to edit different individuals’s actual photos and create pretend social media accounts, particularly for fashionable individuals. It’s a time to be very cautious,” Adeniyi instructed Africa Verify.
He additionally suggested social media customers to be vigilant by recurrently checking the place their photographs appeared on-line and whether or not any accounts had been falsely created of their title.
Along with impersonating individuals, scammers additionally create pretend X accounts utilizing the names and logos of actual banks. They then reply to X customers searching for assist with banking issues. For instance, in 2023, a Nigerian directed to WhatsApp by a pretend United Financial institution for Africa account was duped of US$1,500.
Whereas not extensively reported in Nigeria, scammers have additionally been identified to clone the web sites of banks. In 2023, Africa Verify investigated an internet type that regarded like a low-quality copy of Moniepoint’s web site, requesting customers’ delicate info. Moniepoint is a monetary companies supplier catering to small and medium companies in Nigeria.
Scammers make the most of financial hardship or information about authorities help packages to trick individuals into offering their private knowledge or sending cash.
These scams typically declare to be official government-issued aid funds, grants, money payouts or palliatives, however they’re fabricated.
For instance, in March 2024, claims that the federal authorities was disbursing N30,000 in aid funds to all Nigerians started circulating on-line. This got here a month after president Bola Tinubu met with state governors and leaders from the personal sector to debate easy methods to cushion the consequences of the financial disaster, notably the rising price of meals within the nation. Africa Verify discovered no proof of such a aid programme.
Equally, rip-off on-line giveaways – the place somebody pretends to present cash or prizes away free of charge – are additionally frequent. Though celebrities and corporations typically do share such giveaways on social media, scammers additionally use this as a technique to solicit private info or cash from social media customers. They promise high-value prizes or make the most of particular durations, comparable to Ramadan, to make the supply extra plausible.
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar and is noticed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting, prayer and reflection. Throughout this time, Muslims are inspired to be notably beneficiant and donate to these in want.
In February 2026, Africa Verify recognized pretend giveaways within the title of Mufti Ismail Menk, a preferred Islamic preacher; Ali Ibrahim Pantami, a Nigerian Islamic scholar and politician; Saliu Mustapha, a Nigerian senator and conventional chief; Nigerian billionaire and philanthropist Aliko Dangote; and even telecommunications firm MTN.
Many social media accounts claiming to characterize monetary know-how, or fintech, funding companies and mortgage platforms should not recognised by the federal government or regulators, such because the Federal Competitors and Client Safety Fee (FCCPC) or Securities Trade Fee (SEC).
They declare to supply massive loans, unrealistic returns on funding, and seemingly require little to no paperwork or any background checks to use.
Such scams have a tendency to draw consideration, particularly from these in monetary want. As a result of the platforms function with out correct registration and oversight, they’ll have interaction in unethical, dangerous or unlawful practices that put debtors in danger.
Babatunde Akin-Moses, chief government officer of Sycamore, a fintech platform, instructed Africa Verify that the hazard of utilizing a pretend fintech platform was that customers would possibly lose cash.
“The regulators sometimes have an inventory of accredited gamers. One can examine the SEC web site for licensed fund managers, the FCCPC for licensed lenders, and the Central Financial institution of Nigeria, or CBN, for accredited microfinance banks.”
He additionally mentioned that pretend platforms may misuse knowledge by promoting it to 3rd events with out individuals’s consent, invading their privateness.
The Nigeria Inter-Financial institution Settlement System has mentioned that digital fee fraud of N25.85 billion ($18.8 million) occurred in 2025, down from N52.26 billion ($38.15 million) in 2024.
Based on the CBN‘s fintech report launched in 2025, Nigeria faces a permanent reputational burden linked to digital fraud pushed by a mixture of home prison exercise and cross-border actors exploiting international digital platforms.
In an effort to clamp down on fraud, fintech platforms declare to be “adopting AI” for fraud detection.
Akin-Moses instructed Africa Verify that regulators may minimise the unfavorable affect by means of client training and sanctions for erring events.
Unemployment stays a main difficulty in Nigeria. Whereas job searching, individuals typically fall for fraudulent presents on social media.
These pretend adverts promise excessive pay for little to no expertise or ask for upfront charges. Others inform candidates their probabilities of being employed will enhance in the event that they share the adverts “extensively”, or touch upon the advert with their telephone numbers or financial institution particulars, presumably to reap private knowledge.
In Nigeria, such job scams more and more contain networking companies, also referred to as multi-level advertising and marketing companies that make cash from promoting a product and recruiting individuals.
A Ponzi scheme is a sort of funding fraud that pays current traders with funds collected from new traders. Ponzi scheme organisers typically promise to speculate cash on behalf of individuals and generate excessive returns with little or no danger. However in lots of instances, the fraudsters don’t truly make investments the cash.
In 2025, Nigerian traders skilled an estimated $1 billion in losses from a Ponzi scheme referred to as Crypto Bridge Trade, or CBEX. The SEC famous that Nigerians misplaced an estimated N300.2 billion ($219.19 million) to fraudulent funding schemes in recent times.
Based on Adeniyi, financial hardship, lack of endurance, greed and a “get-rich-quick syndrome” are among the many causes Nigerians proceed to fall for Ponzi schemes.
“When individuals don’t have sufficient endurance to develop something, or they wish to see in a single day success, they fall sufferer to schemes like this.
“Though it retains recurring, individuals nonetheless fall sufferer, due to the large inhabitants we’ve got in Nigeria, so there’s a tendency for extra individuals to get scammed as a result of they did not listen up to now. And likewise – the extra subtle know-how is getting, the wiser these behind the Ponzi schemes are getting.”
Scammers proceed to attempt to infiltrate the Nigerian cryptocurrency market, which reached $92.1 billion in transactions in January 2026.
In February, the Nigerian police arrested seven suspects working a web based funding rip-off centre specialising in crypto fraud in Delta state. The scammers used 500 social media accounts to spam and interact with victims.
In a number of instances, individuals who invested with such platforms have been unable to withdraw their cash after depositing it.
The SEC has repeatedly warned towards investing in unlicensed crypto and overseas change platforms. It has additionally highlighted plans to deal with funding and crypto fraud in 2026.
Based on Nigeria’s federal authorities, there’s a deficit of 15 million housing items within the nation. Consequently, Nigerians typically wrestle to seek out inexpensive and liveable housing, creating room for scammers to take benefit.
Actual property and property administration scams typically contain pretend listings, stress to pay upfront charges with out seeing the property, or impersonating brokers or landlords to steal cash. Widespread pink flags embody suspiciously low lease, refusal to point out the property in individual and pressing, high-pressure ways.
Whereas many individuals search real romantic partnerships on-line, scammers create pretend personas to start out romantic relationships with unsuspecting social media customers, acquire their belief, after which manipulate them into sending cash or offering delicate monetary particulars for false emergencies, investments or journey. These pretend accounts are sometimes discovered on courting apps, social media and gaming websites.
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Challenge (OCCRP) traced one such case to a Nigerian residing within the nation’s capital, Abuja. A Romanian enterprise government who thought she was investing in a humanitarian challenge by the crown prince of Dubai was as a substitute drawn right into a romance rip-off that price her greater than $2.5 million.
In one other occasion, a 24-year-old was arrested in reference to a N48.5 million (about $38,900) romance rip-off. In an announcement, the police revealed that the younger man joined a fraud syndicate in 2023, specialising in romance scams on Fb and Instagram.
Chikezie Omeje, the Africa editor of OCCRP, instructed Africa Verify that it’s exhausting to estimate the variety of individuals affected by romance scams as a result of most victims don’t report them.
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“Most victims are sometimes ashamed of falling for such a rip-off,” he mentioned.
Omeje mentioned that the OCCRP had seen a sample of scammers combining romance scams with pretend enterprise alternatives, luring victims into sending them cash.
“The scammers normally groom their victims for a number of months to achieve their confidence earlier than asking for enormous monetary commitments. This type of rip-off typically includes a collection of manipulations that unfold progressively over an extended time period. As soon as the victims begin sending cash, they imagine that sending more cash would allow them to unlock no matter rewards that the scammers have promised them.”
How you can keep protected
Scams proceed to thrive on-line, placing each susceptible and guarded social media customers in danger. This is how one can defend your self.
Confirm the supply or individual: All the time verify presents or messages from banks, fintechs or authorities businesses by consulting their official web sites or verified social media pages. To confirm the id of a person, conduct a reverse picture search of the profile image to examine whether or not the individual is who they declare to be. In the event you discover the identical photograph elsewhere on-line, there may be trigger for concern.
Keep away from suspicious hyperlinks: Hyperlinks despatched by means of WhatsApp or shared on social media might result in pretend web sites designed to steal your info. Keep away from clicking on such hyperlinks except you might be sure of their authenticity.
Hold private and banking particulars safe: By no means give out your financial institution verification quantity, ATM pin, banking passwords or card particulars. Official organisations is not going to ask for these particulars on-line or over the telephone. And a number of other banks proceed to reiterate that they won’t ask in your banking particulars.
Keep away from paying any upfront charges: Official loans, grants, jobs or aid packages don’t require “processing” or “activation” charges as a part of the appliance. Requests for cash as a way to get extra are a right away pink flag.
Be careful for AI-generated pictures and movies: Scammers use photographs, movies and voice notes that look and sound actual to impersonate authorities officers, influencers or celebrities. Know the clues that one thing has been generated utilizing AI.
Verify whether or not fintechs are registered: Authorized lenders should seem on the FFPC’s record of accredited or conditionally accredited platforms. Earlier than making use of for a mortgage, examine whether or not the platform is compliant. Equally, all funding platforms in Nigeria are required to register with the SEC earlier than working.
Ask questions: Staying protected from on-line scams requires fixed vigilance. Undertake a questioning perspective, particularly when one thing sounds too good to be true.
