Offering a lad legitimate work to turn from crime

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Posted: Sun Aug 11, 2013 10:21 am

Hi,
I know a lot of you guys have got lads to do some pretty amazing and dumb things, from dressing up as clowns, superheros, getting tattoos, building edifices and going on safari. But has any of you ever had a lad take up a legitimate work offer.
I mailed a few lads with a fake job offer to ask them if they would be interested in taking soil samples and sending them to me, making out I was looking for oil. I had pretty much no interest at all. I did make the work offers pretty appealing, offering them accommodation and equipment. I guess they sounded too much like the usual too good to be true work offer spam.

So how about clubbing together and giving a lad a legitimate work offer. Anyone prepared to club together to pay at least minimum wage for them to do an honest days work?
Anyone know of any lad who we could have a dialogue with, and trust Smile

And if so, what sort of work would you have them do?

Go help some old people clean house? Buy and distribute food to some homeless?

I think that rather than people in this country just sticking a few coins in a charity box for Africa, this method of employing someone to do something respectful, and also help other people could be beneficial to everyone.

Your thoughts?

Posted: Sun Aug 11, 2013 10:30 am

A noble idea, but little out of our league. I would not trust a person who does 419 to do honest work if offered this way. Rather I would expect them to try finding one way or another to get the wage without doing anything. Perhaps things have changed during the years I've been gone, but at least several years ago there was plenty of evidence that lads don't do 419 because they are poor and it's their only way of getting money. Quite the contrary, in fact.

I'd rather continue making the 419 more ineffective source of income for them.

Posted: Sun Aug 11, 2013 12:16 pm

Not a good idea to hire a lad for a real job unless he repents, and we're far away and don't know his culture well enough to tell. Let's keep baiting.

Posted: Sun Aug 11, 2013 5:14 pm

We will at best only convince those lads that "suck" at scamming and should therefore be kept in the business. Those who make $2000 or more a month will not even have a second look. To create jobs for scammers you have to be on location, know the local "elders" and get their support. Then you have to make sure you don't step on anyone's toes (by paying the highest wages in the area and "stealing" the best workers from other businesses) and finally you have to show frequent presence for quality control, or your nice enterprise goes down the drain faster that the water in your bathtub after pulling the plug. This is Africa.

And once you have hooked a few guys you can bet that they will quit as soon as one of their friends comes back from WU and wiggles some brand new dollar bills in their faces. People with money are admired and no one cares where this money comes from. I have worked for the UN in post-war Sudan and was amazed by the idleness of the majority of the male population and the blunt unwillingness to improve or learn in their jobs, even if instructions were offered for free. They wanted to get paid for learning.

Give one of those guys a pair of sunglasses, an AK47, a pair of camo pants and tell him to hang around the main gate of the local airstrip for $500 a month and he will stay - if you don't mind that he leaves for lunch and frequently doesn't come back until the next morning. He might also disappear for a few days or weeks, but you can be sure he will be back in time for payday. And don't try to cut his wages in that case (AK47!).

Yes, I sound cynical, but it is based on my experiences.

Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2013 9:00 am

Thanks for posting wowwow,
I can see where you are going with this and it would be great if scammers could be lured away from their criminal ways with the hope of legitimate employment. Sad to say that's not a very likely outcome, FWP-149 put it very well.

But one other thing is that many scammers do have legitimate jobs as well as whatever scams they are involved in. Some cases it does seem like having a "real" job may have contributed to reform of some scammers who worked as low level cafe boys when they were younger. But this is incredibly hard to be sure of - and what these cases have in common is that they are "serious" career pathways that come with the need for at least the appearance of legitimacy.

Smaller scale "piecework" type jobs, like the kind baiters could sponsor, unfortunately don't have any long-term benefits, security etc. but could realistically only be a one-off deal.

And finally, why reward someone who has been selected on the basis of criminal activity by putting them on a path toward legitimate work? I suggest considering doing the same thing but in a way that does not favour criminals! For example, donating to a charitable organisation in your area that helps jobless people develop skills toward employment.

EDITED TO ADD: There have been a very few baits that try and get scammers to do something productive in their community, not just the usual sorts of safaris, tattoos and trophies. For example Jwoods Spongebob Squarepants bait or some of his others, all involving the scammer dressed up and giving out food to children. This is a different angle to what you suggest (because the scammer is paying for it all!) but at least it's a way to harness the powers of baiting for the public good.

Master Baiter Joined: 16 Sep 2009 Posts: 229

firehouse5 wrote:

EDITED TO ADD: There have been a very few baits that try and get scammers to do something productive in their community, not just the usual sorts of safaris, tattoos and trophies. For example Jwoods Spongebob Squarepants bait or some of his others, all involving the scammer dressed up and giving out food to children. This is a different angle to what you suggest (because the scammer is paying for it all!) but at least it's a way to harness the powers of baiting for the public good.

I even remember some baits which tried to get lads to translate books into Igbo/Yoruba and they actually did it. Thus it was already proven that they do "productive work" as long as the bills are dangled before their nose Very Happy

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