Originally published at The Crux
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The first few dollars felt like a lifeline.
Sitting in his home in Kumbo, the epicenter of violence in Cameroon’s troubled English-speaking north west region, John (not his real name) clicked through an online platform to which he’d been introduced.
The tasks were simple: filling out advertisement forms and completing digital engagements. Every time he clicked ‘submit’, a small payment followed, blinding him to the trap being set.
“Receiving that money made me believe that they were genuine people and that the opportunity was real,” John told Crux Now. “It built my confidence in them because I saw what looked like real proof that they wanted to support me,” he said.
“At that time, I was hoping for a better future. I wanted an opportunity to support myself, improve myself, and become more independent,” John said.
He never thought that what looked like help was actually a way of gaining his trust before putting him into a situation where he would lose his freedom and dignity.
John was eventually lured to Ghana in 2023 – the promise of quick money for a student already forced out of school because of conflict was too tempting to ignore.
The money was nothing
