The “secondary” industries
Wherever people are making a lot of money legitimately (more or less), there is usually a thriving secondary illegitimate industry bubbling just below the surface. The same holds true for the precious metals and minerals industry on the African continent… Many starry-eyed treasure-seekers get conned out of a small fortunes annually (yours truly included). It was however when I met a self-proclaimed and unapologetic con-artist that it sank in for me: This is “business” for some people. Greed drives some and need others. Regardless of motivation, however outside the realm of mining rights licenses and brinks is lies another multi-billion industry.
Mr C – Con-artist extraordinaire
In 2011 I met Mr C (let’s call him that to protect his anonymity) – *I promise it’s not me*. As I already mentioned here, this was the “gold and diamond rush” phase of my/our life/lives. Again, I am not too sure who introduced me to Mr C. Invariably he was “a friend of a friend of a friend”. Strangely, he was a very friendly and amiable person. So much so that when he told me what he ACTUALLY does, I was shocked. My reaction was “YOU”??!! I could not reconcile his personality with his clandestine occupation. Out of self-interest, for the most part, but also simple fascination, I wanted to know how his “business” works. He obliged and broke it down for me.
An international industry
They are brokers of diamond transactions – of sorts. I say “they” because, as he admitted to me, there is a WORLDWIDE syndicate working together. Just like in the diamond industry, where “everyone knows everyone”, so too in the secondary industry. Mr C is in the “sales department”. His job was to find interested, unsuspecting buyers to buy 100% manufactured (FAKE) diamonds. His manufacturing department (there are apparently many all over the world) is in Russia somewhere. But he handled “sales” for Africa. Their leads were generated mainly through “word-of-mouth”. Anybody looking for diamonds was a potential mark. Novices worked best. However, he proudly explained many of his biggest “deals” had been “big buyers”. In other words the got most satisfaction if the buyer, by virtue of his experience in the industry, should not be falling for this type of scam. Go figure, even con-artists need job fulfilment.
The Nature of the Gig
Initially, they would pretend that they had genuine, but blackmarket, product to sell. Illegitimacy makes it difficult for the mark to later bring the authorities in to try and recover his/her money. He decided whether the referring “broker”/party could be trusted with the secret that the diamonds were actually fake. In other words, some brokers KNOWINGLY introduced their buyers as marks, but others unwittingly brought their buyers to the table. I suppose it depended on the person, but he said he knew who he could trust with this secret – like recognises like I guess. They also use other lead generation methods such as emails or “direct marketing”. We all know the type: the offer of a once in a lifetime deal: great diamonds available for sale at unheard of prices. Usually because of some underlying personal or logistical problem. I still have never quite figured out how they get the “mailing list”. I suppose it’s a blanket approach and someone “bites”, but I digress.
Disorientation
Once the mark was “on the hook”, they would set a neutral place to meet. As he explained, the goal here was to displace the potential buyer in order to disorientate. Also, the foreign environment made it that much more difficult for the buyer to “get help” once he realised what had happened to him/her. This would allow them (they sometimes worked in teams of two or three) a bigger window to escape. As you can imagine, these were one-time only “deals”. I asked whether he had ever re-encountered a mark subsequently. “Yes”, he said, “but that is extremely bad for business”, he laughed. His laugh was contagious, but I couldn’t help but feel a pang of angst, given that technically I fit all the criteria of a “mark” (some dramatic irony given what later happened to us – more here).
“Quality” is still important
He prided himself on the fact that his “wares” were of such superior quality, that even experienced buyers often couldn’t tell them apart from genuine diamonds. Making the buyer think that these were “black-market” diamonds was key. This usually meant that they would spend less time examining the product because they would be more concerned about getting caught by authorities than getting conned. He stated that sometimes, depending on their assessment of the mark, they even organised fake “stings”. In this scenario, a fake police team would break down the door mid-transaction. The bewildered mark would often simply give the money to the “police” in order to avoid capture.
Twisted Motivation
When asked why he was comfortable ripping off people, he stated that anyone who is “prepared to operate outside the law” was, in his opinion, “fare game”. Secondly, he stated that white people had been ripping us off for centuries, so this is was payback (his words not mine). While I have come to know this to be true and empathise with the sentiment, there are unforeseen consequences that have resulted for Afropreneurs wanting to do LEGITIMATE business on the continent.
There is still money to be made
Secondary industries, especially where driven by need, are a sad reality. (See more here). The point of sharing this and other experiences elsewhere on this site, is not to scare anyone out of trying to get into the diamond or gold industries. On the contrary, there is a lot of money to be made and certain people *coughs tellingly* have been making money legitimately for decades (more or less). The point is to strongly dissuade any afropreneur from trying to do business in those industries ILLEGITIMATELY. Take the additional time (and spend the additional money) to make sure that you’re covered by the appropriate licenses. Secondly, always remain vigilant. Even when you are doing things legitimately, as in our case(s), there are scammers waiting to dispossess you of your hard-earned money.
Lessons Learned
Sadly, it seems, the “primary industries” are still largely reserved for Western multi-nationals while Africans fight over the scraps. I have often mused that if Mr C (and the thousands of other con-artists on the continent in diverging industries) applied himself (themselves) equally to a “legitimate business”, he (they) could actually do very well. The amount of planning, coordination – project management even – required to pull off the scam is almost the same as that required for a legit business. I suppose the mindset is what differs. A great afropreneur, like any entrepreneur, derives pleasure from creating solutions to everyday problems. The anti-afropreneur (*see what I did there*) thrives from creating everyday problems – period. He/she also ruins it for other afropreneurs who are trying to make it on this continent. While I had sympathy for and liked Mr C, this is the part that rubs me up the wrong way. The bar/threshold that other afropreneurs have to surmount in order to convince the market of their legitimacy is so much higher as a result of Mr Cs strewn across the continent.
