Why is this still happening in Nigeria in 2026?

[Bryan jessy]

Scammers can go extra miles and they can use any means or things with value that they are aware that people will want to get, scammers cones up with things they know it will interest people that is why it is very easy to fall for scam especially when a person do not know nor have the idea of how far scammers can go, in this case it's a trusted group with like minded individuals who shares the same goal, maybe the scammer most have thought that they are naive but they were smarter in the sense that they reached out to the real owner of the contact to confirm if the person actually sent such, also in business groups like this post with things different from their goals like this are question because it is totally prohibited, such scam scheme is easy to avoid  failing victim and also easily to overcome.

[Su-asa]

From my perspective, this is literally a cheap scam method, but people will still fall for it, mostly those without common sense. The reason why I said those without common sense is that, looking at it alone, it will tell you that it's a cheap scam. That set of people who will become victims of this because they literally think that they will be lucky to get a one-time chance from the scammer are big fools because it's already obvious that they are greedy.

The reason why I call this method a crap scam is that nowadays most intelligent scammers have developed another method which allows them to advertise their scam and Ponzi scheme on social media with just a small amount of money. They don't have to message the victim; when the victim sees the ad on social media, they will be forced to message the scammers because they are desperate and greedy as well.

Right now, scammers have grown past that stage of messaging their victims first; they do their thing and wait for the desperate ones to message them.

One of the reasons why people end up being scammed is because they don't have the right information about what they are about to join.

[Comeacross]

I know it’s a Ponzi scheme, many people would recognize it at first glance but the question here is whether the awareness about cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin is still very small amongst average slightly elderly people and many people still haven’t really understand what it is? Because this is 2026 and with how adoption is said to have increased in Africa and Nigeria in particular, I don’t expect to be seeing this type of obvious scam associated directly with bitcoin.

Bitcoin is used as a cover up but that's actually money doubling scam that have been existing for a long time. You know why they use bitcoin as a cover up? Because some people still believe bitcoin is a quick money scheme. They have read or heard about people that made profit from bitcoin in the past and whenever they hear the word bitcoin, the first thing that come their mind is quick money. Scammers now take advantage on elderly people that may not be well informed to duped them. Forget we are in 2026, there are still a large number of people that know nothing about bitcoin in Nigeria. Bitcoin is popular among the youths that are highly exposed to internet and social media.

Most of our women and elderly men are not well aware about it. Of course, some of them are exposed to internet but not on the same purpose as we the youths. They mostly spend time on Tiktok and Facebook watching reels. Don't be surprised some of them are still very much falling for the scam as cheap as this. In some groups that I controlled on WhatsApp, I don't hesitate to delete such messages and remove the member from the group. I don't wait for them to announce they have been hacked.

[JoyceBTC]

I know it’s a Ponzi scheme, many people would recognize it at first glance but the question here is whether the awareness about cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin is still very small amongst average slightly elderly people and many people still haven’t really understand what it is? Because this is 2026 and with how adoption is said to have increased in Africa and Nigeria in particular, I don’t expect to be seeing this type of obvious scam associated directly with bitcoin.

Internet wise, most elderly people are not very smart some of them don't even understand cryptography or know how to dictate scammer those are the type of people these scammer are after. Many of them would fall for it thinking they've seen a good investment opportunity not knowing that Bitcoin is not a ponzi scheme whereby you put your money into it and get returns immediately.

If you notice, the elderly ones are the victims of ponzi scams that's why more awareness should be created to help them know about Bitcoin and how to avoid being scammed throuh it.

That is not entirely true ,both young adult falls victims too because of greed,once they hear invest in this and get this in few days or hours they quickly jump into the offer,so I can't say it's only elderly once that are mostly likely to fall for it ,but all the same more awareness should be created, because it marvels me to see the rate at which people falls for this scammers , whenever they create such things ,many don't think twice they invest immediately they hear the amount to get back in few days,which is purely greed that has misled many into such troubles.

It is true that most young adult are still victims of this scams but we can’t argue the fact that the elderly ones are more easier to scam than the youth. This elderly ones are not as smart as the youth, most of them don’t even know what is going on in the internet, so can be easily fooled and they are also not smart enough to make use of the internet to do some researches like the younger ones. But I can say recently, the younger adults are now becoming smart enough to detect scams like this earlier to avoid being a victim, while some know this is Ponzi but still go ahead because of greed as you’ve said.

[Jegileman]

I know it’s a Ponzi scheme, many people would recognize it at first glance but the question here is whether the awareness about cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin is still very small amongst average slightly elderly people and many people still haven’t really understand what it is? Because this is 2026 and with how adoption is said to have increased in Africa and Nigeria in particular, I don’t expect to be seeing this type of obvious scam associated directly with bitcoin.

I don’t think that Nigerians are not aware of bitcoin till now because the name bitcoin is a popular name now in Nigeria with many attributing it to scam. I am surprised that these group of people will fall for such scams. The narrative might be changing now though, before now bitcoin was seen generally by Nigerians especially the elderly ones as a scam investment, that even caused a slow adoption rate and trust for bitcoin in countries like Nigeria.

Bitcoin is now a more popular household name in Nigeria and anytime they talk about one owning some bitcoin, the general narrative that we get is that the person is very rich. This could be where the problem is, they’re now using it to lure elderly ones to invest their money in order to become richer. Information is very important and I think we are lacking that as Nigerians, that’s the only way we can get to reduce this kind of scams.