.Habibou, is he a scam? A few weeks ago, I posted a conversation in different groups and asked some African friends. A young African had contacted me asking for help. He said he was in a senior secondary school and can not finish it because his father died. Therefore, he can not pay for it to continue, but he knows education is the key to success.
He asked for help and I asked him a lot of question. And he said he is Muslim and I know the prayer in Arabic and wrote him down a piece of it. I know no Muslim kid would dare to lie reading this part.
He said he knows and he is not a betrayer. After this, I asked him to write a special part of the prayer down. And he did. I asked him for the mail of his school and I wrote a letter to his principle and him. Mr.Marong from Sifoe Senior Secondary School wrote me back.
He wrote, Habibou is a good boy and has good skills. I told Habibou to write down about himself and his life.
Here is what he tells us :
“Greetings
I Habibou Bojang from the Gambia WEST AFRICA. Living with my family here in a town called Brikama.
I have 3 brothers 2 sisters, with my ill mother living in a bad and poor situation. No one seems to care. Since we lost our father we were living with our mum facing hardship and poverty in the society and no one seems to care.
I Habibou stand, die and live for my family to survive but fortunately, we live with good neighbors who use to give us some food to eat. But they also have a big family.
Sometimes we do not eat, we try to manage and put faith to God above everything.
We live in a house where we used to pay rent when my father was alive. But now the landlord gives us a chance to pay for the rents, but since father died he never ask us for house rent. Indeed, for that cash, I stand and fight for my family to succeed in life.
We live in a house of pain which means if you see the house pictures tears will come into your eyes.
My sisters are never in school. I hope and wish for them to have a good future and live in good condition as well.
We are living in a terrible life here.
During the day after helping my mum with some domestic works, I normally clean the internet cafe. So I can have free time to chat as I am not able to afford the fee at the Internet,
And the only cafe I get access to clean and gain time is Kanyi’s Internet cafe. She is the only one who gave me a chance to sweep the cafe and gain time from her to chat.
Life in the Gambia is going tricky and hard I am facing here as well as others. My father was a farmer and a fisherman, we had a big family as well,
Now I live with my 3sisters and 2 brothers with mum. One of my sisters died and 2 of my cousin,
My father was a fisherman we gain our living in this when he sells the fish or the plants he cultivated at his farm,(not his own land). Many Years back, old ages ago, People here normally made their living on farming and some normally survived with wood selling,
Since my father died, I used to go down to the forest to cut down some woods and sell them and get our survival in this. And now this is not allowed for anyone to cut down woods in the forest. This became so hard on us if they catch us for this they jail you all day long.
I am at home after the cafe to help my mummy and have a chat with her as I have no close friend since I stopped schooling which is my greatest ambition but I stopped it sadly because of the financial problem we have here as no one is concerned to take this pain away from us.
The majority of the country is poor while the minority does not care about the poor how harder they are living, and even though that the Organisation give AID to the needy when help comes, that help never comes directly to the needy as we have corrupted Leaders here who doesn’t want us to survive either to make concern about us.
Many families here cry for hunger and starve every day, people crying of hunger as well.” The last thing I know from him is that the kids did not have to eat for two day’s and are crying.
What is your opinion, does he lie?
I asked him , why I and he said because I saw you and trust you. Also, I think maybe he saw the pictures of my African friends. I asked if he had contacted anybody else he said, no
Please leave a comment and let me know what you think about this case.
Thank you
Here a video with pictures
Also, see Following Intuition
Hi Erika,
May I be forgiven if I am wrong but I do not believe this is true. I Googled the name and too many different profiles on different social sites with no pictures come up.
Thank you for sharing the info. I don’t know anything about this myself. Have a great day
Thank you Christine,
I know there is a lot of scam
out there ,it is good to know that things like this happen.
Hi Erika,
I do get this stuff myself. I once did a little digging and it was a scam. They took people off the internet, used them just to get money. I even found a picture of myself once as a poster gal for someone’s kickstarter program. I reported them like crazy. It is difficult, but there are too many scammers out there.
-Donna
Hi Donna ,you are right ,
it is not easy to find out
which is real ,we will see.
Thank you for your opinion
It’s sad that the scammers spoil things for others who really are in very poor circumstances. If someone asks me for money with a story like this I delete them. If they tell me something about themselves,but are interested in ways of trying to make money online and want help, I will give them advice. This tends to be more about what to steer clear of and how to develop a good online presence, before joining anything that requires them to recruit others.
I see that Habibou has his own blog where he repeats his story and is involved in a MLM program. As to how genuine he is I reckon it depends on his messages to you.
Hi Sue ,
I am sure there are scammers,
Habibou is a young boy who is allowed to swipe a internet cafe
and use the internet a little for his work ,he does not get paid.
This is how he got to me, he said ,he dared to contact me ,because
his heart told him .
As far as I know he did not contact anybody else of the people
in his FB .He is very proud of his site and the MLM link is mine,
you will see if you click on it. He does not know very much about internet
and I will teach him a bit when I have time .Until than we will post his stories.
If something comes out of the link ,I will give it to him .
He is very eager to save his family and is a very ambitious good student.
Thank you for the comment 🙂
Hey yeah I usually find that when you get these sort of messages on the internet, they tend to be scams, I’ve had messages before when trying to sell my car for example and I get a message saying for me to click on this link to send payment etc but that way that’s how they take your money.
Now I’m not saying all these kind of things are scams, but because the majority are, it’s a sad thing but it’s safe to assume all of them will be.
Hi Sean ,
in this case there was not a link to click ,
it was a real human talking to me and I am in contact
with his Principle as well. I wish it would be a scam,
but unfortunately it is not .
Yes ,it is easier to give a few dollars to a charity ,
which makes us feel good ,but most of this disappears
in administration and not much gets to the needy.
Because of this I only help ,if I know it is real .
Thank you
Hello Erika, I get these kind of messages on a daily basis, how are we to know my friend. You are a very caring person and will learn what is right and what is not. Thanks for sharing.. Chery :))
Chery Schmidt recently posted…Discover How I Won The Fearless Dominators Team Blitz
Chery ,I never got a message like it before. But I have the feeling we need to pay more attention to our inner voice .
For me it was often very helpful .
Happy that I found all your comments and know now I need to look in spam sometimes 🙂
Hi, Erika!
It is the same for me. I’m trying to find out, if Adama Bojang is a real and sincere person. Even though I’m not entirely sure, I sent him some money for Christmas and more. The details he supplied so far are in line with what I found on his facebook, in his blog and in what you write. I talked to him quite some time, via skype. Only there are some questions, and I wonder why he didn’t answer them for now, and clearly. I still don’t know if his first name is Adama or Habibou 🙂 I know Habibou is the name of his deceased father. There are some more questions, like he told me yesterday he is seventeen, while his facebook says he is born Feb 4, 1992.
I don’t know if you want to discuss details, here. You may as well send me a private mail.
Greetings from Germany and keep up good work!
Hi Ralf ,
I wonder how did you find my blog ?
And I am happy you did ,Habibou is a good soul,
I think I know him long enough,he uses the name
Adama, I unfriended him on Facebook ,because a friend of him
did write on every post I did and this is not what I want.
They have not really access to the internet for themselves
And this friend did this when Habibou was sick. He wanted
to skype with me as well,but I said he should write email to
improve his English,which got worse after a while not going
to school anymore.I did a lot of research and things are really
bad over there.Will write better in email more .
But I am really happy you found me,I was wishing for something
like this,but as the ways of the universe are unfathomable,it came
from an unexpected direction. 🙂
Thank you ,will write a mail soon
Erika
Hello Everyone, I have the same problem as well. I’m trying to see if he’s a scam artist or is he really telling the truth. Because he texted me today and found my social media . He calls me brother but I’ve never meet him? So I’m curious
Hi Joseph Maxwell,
I know, he told me about it.
But let’s talk more.
I will email you.
Erika
look for an email , maybe also in your spam folder.
Subject: Habibou the scam boy? I am Erika
He just contacted me with a request for money to buy rice and veggies.
Please help if you can
Thank you
Erika
So is this man a Christian or a Muslim? Does he have 5 or 8 siblings? Does he work with fishing or lumber?
These are secondary things, really… I wouldn’t mind a lie or two from a place of desperation.
But something isn’t quite adding up. Take care.
Hi Stephan,
he is a born Muslim.
This what he did write for you :
My brother, I have 5 siblings total in my family like I told you and 4 other orphans children that I helped by having the little I earn. And also I born as a Muslim as I told you my father is a Muslim. And also I work in the lumber mill not fishing my father did fishing before he dies not me check my story and what I have told you if there is a difference.
What is it that does not add up? And why? Did you consider to help?
Unfortunately, if people give to charity, they do not ask if it’s adding up if the money lands in the pocket of the boss.Most charities are fake. If they would do what they say, we would not have kids like this. I never give to charity, I always only help people I know. But thank you for your comment, Stephan.
Erika
My brother i have 5 siblings totall in my family like i told you and 4 other orphans children that i helped by having the littlei earn. And also i born as a muslim as i told you mu father is a muslim. Ans also i work in the lumber mill not fishing ny father did fishing before he dies not me check ny story and what i have told you if there is difference.
How old is Habibou? Is He a devout Muslim to this day? Is anyone else besides your self (Erika) helping him out financially today? How are his siblings doing today health wise? And how is there situation over there today with the whole pandemic?
Hi Erika, I know it’s a few questions, do you mind answering them?
How old is Habibou? Is he still a devout Muslim today? Erika, do you know if anyone else is still helping him out today, financially? What is his current situation right now with his family with COVID-19 going on? Are his siblings and his mom in good health?
Sorry, I know it’s a lot of questions. I was wondering, Erika, if you wouldn’t mind answering them?
Hi there, I’ve tried to post twice now the past few days and I have not been able to. I want to help, but I’m trying to get some information on this young man.