The ‘Yahoo-Yahoo’ business is becoming a norm in Nigeria as both male and female, old and young are now venturing into it. Cyber crimes are committed daily in various forms such as fraudulent electronic mails, pornography, identity theft, hacking, cyber harassment, spamming, Automated Teller Machine spoofing, piracy and phishing.
What does the Bible has to say about ‘Yahoo Yahoo’, fraud and Ponzi Schemes
1. Jeremiah 17:11
The person who gets money dishonestly is like a bird that hatches eggs it didn’t lay. In the prime of life he will lose his riches, and in the end he is nothing but a fool.
2. Proverbs 20:17
Food gained by fraud tastes sweet, but one ends up with a mouth full of gravel.
3. Proverbs 13:11
Wealth from get-rich-quick schemes quickly disappears; wealth from hard work grows over time.
4. Leviticus 19:13
Do not defraud or rob your neighbour. “‘Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight.
5. Proverbs 28:22
Greedy people try to get rich quick but don’t realize they’re headed for poverty.
6. 1 Timothy 6:9-10
But people who want to get rich keep toppling into temptation and are trapped by many stupid and harmful desires that plunge them into destruction and ruin.
Verse 10: For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, in their eagerness to get rich, have wandered away from the faith and caused themselves a lot of pain.
7. Micah 2:1-3
Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it. They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them. They defraud people of their homes, they rob them of their inheritance. Therefore, the LORD says: “I am planning disaster against this people, from which you cannot save yourselves. You will no longer walk proudly, for it will be a time of calamity.
8. Proverbs 10:2
Ill-gotten treasures have no lasting value, but righteousness delivers from death.
9. Proverbs 16:8
It is better to have a little, honestly earned, than to have a large income, dishonestly gained.
10. Ephesians 4:28
Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.
11. Hebrews 13:5
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
12. Proverbs 22:1
A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.
13. Proverbs 22:16-17
One who oppresses the poor to increase his wealth and one who gives gifts to the rich–both come to poverty. Pay attention and turn your ear to the sayings of the wise; apply your heart to what I teach, for it is pleasing when you keep them in your heart and have all of them ready on your lips.
14. Proverbs 21:5-6
The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty. A fortune made by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a deadly snare. The violence of the wicked will drag them away, for they refuse to do what is right.
15. Mark 10:19
You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.