Abstract
This study was designed to identify the factors influencing youth attitude towards internet fraud among faculty of Education, University of Benin students. The research was carried out as a survey research using relevant literature from journals, magazines, books and the internet. Four research questions were raised and analyzed for the purpose of the study.
A random sampling technique was used using 10% of students in four departments in the faculty of education in selection of three hundred and twenty five faculty of education, students in the University of Benin. The data were collected with questionnaire instrument and analyzed using mean and simple percentage.
The result revealed that; social media, poverty, corruption and unemployment are all factors that promote the increase of internet fraud among youths in Nigeria, Unemployment is a major contributing factor to internet fraud, but it was also discovered that even people with jobs still participate in it, Peer pressure promote youth involvement in internet fraud and most likely, youths with low self-esteem are pressured in cybercrime, Poverty, family background and greed are supportive factors of internet fraud among youths.Enforcing strict legislation actions and parents taking responsibilities of their children, would help curb the menace of internet fraud
Based on the results, it was recommended that Policies and programmes that can transform the youth’s life or reduce risk behaviours of students should be put in place. This involves accurate identification, understanding and assessment of people’s integrity culture from time to time. These programmes should be based on assessed rather than the imagined circumstance, Unemployment to a very great extent causes cyber-crimes. There is an urgent need for job creation in order to engage the idle but enlightened minds of youths in Nigeria. This strategy will boost the economy and also reduce cyber-criminality to the barest minimum, Intervening socio-economic measures, such as social benefits for the youths (especially, the unemployed) should be put in place by the government and Agencies, such as the EFCC, put in place to eradicate the menace of fraudulent practices should be made truly independent of various political maneuverings in the country in order to enhance their performance
