Millions of innocent internet users are bombarded daily with scam emails of all sorts originating from Nigeria and Nigerian scammers elsewhere; and a lot many have fallen victims, losing millions of dollars to these faceless scammers in the process. Internet scam, Internet fraud, advance fee fraud, email scams, dating scams, NGO scams, charity scams - whichever name you choose to call it, it is what it is. And in Nigeria it is a thriving industry clandestinely employing millions of young people. The extent and reach of this industry till this publication, has never been fully comprehended or revealed. It is only imagined, speculated upon, and largely underestimated due to the secrecy in which the scam deals are carried out as well as the code of silence - administered and enforced by voodoo priests - that guides and protects its practitioners. Hence, all the age-old questions regarding them still persist: Who exactly are these scammers? Why do they do what they do? How are they recruited? How do they operate? From where do they operate? Are they alone? Do they have godfathers in high places? Is there a governmental connection to it? Is there an unholy link with law enforcement? Is there a connivance with legitimate banks and financial institutions? What of the much talked about collusion of organized religion? Is there a philosophy to 419? How do 419ers they think? And what do they think when they think? What do they believe? How deadly are they? In fact, what exactly is 419? How did it start? Why is it so successful? Various attempts to answer these questions have been, at best a scratching of the surface, which only succeeded in raising more questions than answers. Why? For the simple fact that these works are mainly the products of professional writers, law enforcement agents, foreign investigators and white collar activists, who find it extremely difficult, as a matter of fact impossible, to penetrate the secrecy of scam deals or crack that code of silence that guides these fraudsters. The need therefore arises for an insider story, detailed, authoritative, first-hand and uncut, a tell-all, by someone who has been there, seen it all and done it. And that is exactly what you get in these pages. In this superlative revelation of a story based on real events, Lucas takes us on a guided tour of the Nigerian internet scam industry as no one had ever done before. It's a personal story. From how he entered the syndicate to his last day as a scammer. From all that he saw and all that he heard, to all the background information and analysis, as well as all the various thought provoking point of views that prevails among the scammers and also the human angle to the drama. It is tour worth taking. Come along.

Noted writer Jay Atkinson recreates Jack Kerouac's legendary On the Road journeys in contemporary North America Jack Kerouac's iconic 1950s novel On the Road is a Beat Generation classic, chronicling the adventures and misadventures of Kerouac's travels crisscrossing North America with Neal Cassady, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and other colorful companions. Now gifted writer Jay Atkinson hits the road to retrace Kerouac's legendary journey today. The author's experiences offer fascinating insights on American culture and society then and now and illuminate his own quest for self-understanding and discovery. Contrasts the life and landscape of Kerouac's 1940s and 1950s America with the realities today Filled with unexpected adventures and strangers encountered on Atkinson's trips to New York, New Orleans, Chicago, Denver, Mexico City, and the California coast Reveals Atkinson's engaging reflections on the search for personal identity and self Other titles by Jay Atkinson: Ice Time (a Publishers Weekly Notable Book of the Year) and Legends of Winter Hill (a Boston Globe bestseller) as well as the novels City in Amber and Caveman Politics Absorbing and beautifully written, Paradise Road is essential reading for Kerouac fans as well as lovers of engaging travel memoirs and anyone interested in American life and culture.

Separated from his rock star wife, J.J. Walker awakens from a drunken binge to face the harsh reality that he is no longer a part of a rich and famous lifestyle. Left poor and unknown with little but a fl ashy new Rolls Royce, a speeding ticket, and a bad hangover, Walker is forced back into the working man's world he thought he'd left behind. Since the former bounty hunter, bodyguard, and skilled private investigator has no clients, zero money, and a car he can't afford, he resorts to a career as a skip tracer working for his former business partner. Walker throws himself into his new job and begins an investigation by setting up surveillance outside such exotic locations as Orange Julius and a biker tavern. In no time at all, Walker lands smack in the middle of a gang of credit scammers, skip artists, and car thieves who bring a whole new level of intrigue, danger, and excitement to his seemingly mundane life. As he probes into the lives of the ingenious and surprisingly likeable bad guys, Walker soon realizes that just when he thinks he's not going to make it in life, his luck changes.

This book explains how leaders in the Caribbean and Pacific regions balance the autonomy-viability dilemma of postcolonial statehood - that political self-determination is a hollow achievement unless it is accompanied by economic development - by practising statehood à la carte. Previous research has focused on the pursuit of decolonial self-determination through and above the nation state, via regionalism and internationalism, or by creating non-sovereign alternatives to it. This book looks at how communities have sought the same goals below the state, including via secession and devolution. Downsizing is typically portrayed as the antithesis of progressive, cosmopolitan internationalism and employed as evidence for the claim that the age of anticolonial self-determination has ended. In this book, Jack Corbett shows how these movements are animated by similar ideas and motivations that are rendered viable by the simultaneous pursuit of regional integration and forms of non-sovereignty. He argues that the à la carte pursuit of political and economic independence through, above, and below the state, and via non-sovereign alternatives to it, is a pragmatic response to the contradictions inherent to coloniality.

Don't become a victim! Next time you a plan a trip, arm yourself with the most comprehensive travel safety guide on the market. Renowned travel experts Bambi Vincent and Bob Arno give you the inside look at today's con games, credit card scams, distraction schemes, and identity thefts plaguing unaware travelers everywhere.

Agency, Security and Governance of Small States examines what seems to be a defining paradox of Small-State Studies: the simultaneous coexistence (and possible co-dependence) of vulnerability and opportunity related to small-state size. This book analyses small states within the framework of this apparent paradox. Traditionally, Small-State Studies has focused on three guiding questions: what constitutes a ‘small state’? What explains small-state influence in global affairs? Are small states truly vulnerable to security threats given the expansion of multilateralism and regionalism throughout the world? This book contends that new questions should be asked which recognise the important shifts in twenty-first century security paradigms, to better understand how some states deploy their smallness as a resource for agency in supranational contexts. By varying historical, geographical, security, and governance contexts, the book embraces a most-different-cases approach. The historical perspective is often neglected in Small-State Studies but contributes to understanding how small states have often, over time, transformed perceived insecurity into agency. By focusing on different world regions, the authors enable the comparative analysis of collective actions, and the creation and implementation of institutions for ‘common sense purposes’ within a geographical region. Of particular contemporary importance, the book includes contributions which contend with hard-security issues alongside other soft-security challenges. The comparison of case studies confirms that hard-security vulnerability and soft-security opportunities seem to be two sides of the same coin, which reinforces the book’s focus on small-state paradoxes, and raises the question of whether smallness can be considered the defining characteristic of governance in these countries. This book will have a broad appeal because of the different world regions it analyses. It will be of interest to postgraduate students, scholars, and researchers of international relations, security, sustainability, governance, development, and political economy, as well as Small-State Studies. The Chapters 4, 8 and 11 of this book are freely available as downloadable Open Access PDFs at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license. The publication of Chapter 4 as Open Access has been made possible by the Institute of History at the University of Luxembourg. The publication of Chapter 8 as Open Access has been made possible by Western Sydney University. The publication of Chapter 11 as Open Access has been made possible by the University of Hamburg.