The internet has made many things change. Whole countries have had to adapt to this changing world but, unfortunately, these adaptations are not always good ones.

Take, for example, Nigeria. In the late 1980’s, Nigeria found that its oil-based economy was taking a serious downturn and some people started to look for less than reputable sources of income to sustain them. Peculiar letters and faxes started to appear in places faraway from Nigeria. These letters explained that there was a situation involving a large amount of money that was “stuck” for some reason (e.g. a person has died and there are no living relatives or a deposed dictator left some money behind). The recipient of the letter was then encouraged to pay a clearing fee or small percentage that would allow them to receive a large share of the stuck money – usually in the order of millions of dollars.

Of course, the whole thing was a scam, and is now usually referred to as a 419 scam after the Nigerian penal code for fraud. With the invention of the internet, spreading these scam letters is now as easy as clicking “send” in a bulk-emailing programme. This means that the letters are far more prevalent now, and there is a good chance you have received at least one in your time on the internet.

Never, ever reply to these emails! We cannot express this strongly enough! They are never true and people have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars through them…and sometimes more. If you ever receive an email purporting to be from Nigeria (or another such country) and asking for your help in return for some money along these lines, regardless of how authentic the documentation looks, do not reply! When Nigeria calls in this way, don’t answer the phone!

World Youth Day was a great experience for all those involved – even the spectators back at home! Sydney was the most connected World Youth Day yet, with social networking, podcasts, and even daily text messages from the Pope helping to bring the pilgrims together. Now everyone is back at home, but there’s still a lot of ways that the Catholic Geek can still experience the fruits of World Youth Day – here’s a couple of the things available:

• For anyone who missed the masses, Stations of the Cross, or the Evening Vigil – not to fear! There is full video of the major events available online. Just head to video.wyd2008.org to see a load of footage.

• The internet makes it easy to share your experiences of World Youth Day. One of the best examples is the huge collection of photos that are uploaded from pilgrims hailing from all corners of the globe – for just a small subset check out the Flickr collections at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/wyd2008/

• There was a huge amount of presentations, talks, and catechesis offered over the days of World Youth Day – far more than any one person could have possibly made it too. Not to worry – the Internet has you covered. A huge number of the presentations given were recorded and are being uploaded to the Internet at www.XT3.com. You need to sign up to check out the Audio section in the library, where new downloads are being regularly added.

Have you found any other resources online from World Youth Day? Share them with others, and live World Youth Day every day!