
Ask HN: Helping People in Africa, Am I Being Scammed? - amibeingscammed
Hello HN,<p>I have been approached by someone on LinkedIn claiming to be an engineer from Africa wanting help in the form of participation in a program I manage. While I am generally happy to “Help,” this person is located in Nigeria which immediately raises several red flags for me. I talked to them on the phone for 30 minutes out of courtesy  and felt that they did not have the depth of skill or knowledge in the area they claimed to be an expert in and also made some exaggerated seeming claims about traveling to China to market the products they had built.<p>The information they did communicate was nothing that couldn’t be googled and their depth of understanding for an engineer was not in line with what I normally have experienced. A few somewhat deeper questions made it clear that they did not possess the true grounding of an industry professional.<p>I am concerned this is nothing more than a scam.<p>Having said that, the charitable side of me feels perhaps this person might really want to improve their skills and change, and is perhaps misguided about the level of training and skill required to be a professional engineer.<p>What would you do? I have noticed that this person seems to have convinced several other companies to endorse them in some form or another despite not seeming to have real credentials. It is my feeling that they are building up a profile for themselves using gullible yet helpful Westerners to generate their facade.<p>My other question: Let’s say I really did choose to “help” them, what good can I possibly do for someone in their position all the way around the world.<p>Leaning towards ignoring them.
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zunzun
This sounds like a professional reputation scam, where they can later show
professional participation in international projects and therefore must be a
high-level engineer.

