Thursday 9 August 2012

Fake Ghana Police Recruiters Busted


Fake Ghana Police Recruiters Busted...


As you may see... There are many ways of SCAM/FRAUD in Ghana! Some are targeting Ghanaians, but most often foreigners from Australia, US, Britain or Germany! Our advise: If you receive any "documents" from your "Date" in Ghana... send it directly to ghananet-net@hotmail.co.uk 

Daily Guide Ghana - 09.08.2012 -


SOME UNSUSPECTING residents in and around Kumasi metropolis have fallen victim to the fraudulent activities of two young men who allegedly posed as police officer and human resource agent for their respective organisations in a phony enlistment programme.

The suspects, Kwadwo Afriyie, 45, a tile layer, and Mark Yama, 26, unemployed, are currently in police custody, assisting with investigations.

They were arrested on August 3, 2012 separately at their hideouts in the city when information about their fraudulent activities got to the police.

DCOP Augustine Gyening, Ashanti Regional Police Commander, told journalists that Kwadwo Afriyie, who posed as a police officer, had in his possession some forged documents bearing the Ghana Police Service (GPS) logo.

According to him, the suspect used the said documents in collecting various sums of money from his unsuspecting victims under the pretext of facilitating their recruitment into the service.

The police chief stated that the fake police officer, in one of his fraudulent moves to convince people to apply for the enlistment, contacted a complainant to pay him GH¢1,200 to ensure an easy sail into the service.

The complainant, who became suspicious, reported the matter to the police, leading to the arrest of the suspect, DCOP Gyening indicated.

The police found on him fake police medical and recruitment forms, a stamp, and a letter embossed with GPS logo purporting to postpone police training at the various centres across the country, due to President John Atta Mills’ death.

In the case of suspect Mark Yama, he made a representation to his victims as a human resource agent of a supposed Cable Gold Consult Internet in Kumasi, claiming to recruit qualified persons as marketing officers for the said company.

The suspect was said to have managed to swindle victims of his scam sums of money as an interview fee that was pegged at GH¢15 per head.

After collecting their monies, DCOP Gyening said, the suspect could not take the victims to where the supposed company was located when he met them at the Adehyeman Gardens area in Kumasi.

He disclosed that the fraudster had asked the victims, who were from different parts of the country, to converge on the Adehyeman Gardens area to be taken to their will-be employers for orientation.

The police commander intimated that the victims became suspicious of Mark Yama and alerted the police about his activity, leading to his arrest.

The suspect admitted to the offence during police interrogation, indicating that he was working for a non-existing company, said DCOP Gyening.

Yama told police investigators he went into the fraudulent business after falling victim to it once when he completed school and was looking for a job.


Wednesday 8 August 2012

When Are We Going To Rid Ghana Of The Online Fraudsters


When Are We Going To Rid Ghana Of The Online Fraudsters



Who Have Turned It Into A Global Superpower In Online Fraud?

By Kofi Thompson  - 08.08.2012

? I read a horrific story about internet romance fraud that made me so angry I felt I had to write an article demanding that Ghana's Parliament passes a law prescribing a mandatory jail sentence for all those involved in internet fraud.

It is giving Ghana a very bad name it most certainly does not deserve. It is an intolerable situation - especially as there are countless opportunities online for those interested in genuine business.

Unfortunately the fast wireless broadband internet offered by telcos in Ghana, has attracted a motley group of online crooks from all over West Africa, to our country.

Together with local online fraudsters - known as Sakaawa - they've succeeded in turning Ghana into a global superpower in online fraud.

And it is monstrous that they can get away with online fraud, such as the culled story below that I chanced upon, when researching the UK's Telegraph newspaper's online edition's tech-section, for news about the latest technology hardware and happenings.

It is time Ghana's executive branch of government and Parliament took steps to deal with this menace and abomination once and for all. Why do they not solicit for technical assistance from police forces in the UK, the EU and USA, I ask?

The culled Telegraph story below speaks for itself. It was written as far back 2nd May 2010 by Harriet Alexander. Please read on:

"British victim of 'romance fraud' tells of ordeal

As police arrest a man suspected to be behind the most serious case of 'romance fraud' to date, Harriet Alexander talks to the victim.

The British victim struck up a relationship over the internet with a man she believed to be an American soldier serving in Iraq.

Sarah Cook thought she had met someone special. The mother of two children had done what many lonely Britons do, and registered with an internet dating site.

Within weeks of entering a new online world of flirtation and romance, she met a US army sergeant serving in Iraq. They would chat online almost daily, swapping stories about his life on base with hers in a West Country town, and over the next 18 months their relationship deepened.

Mrs Cook, 52, was fascinated by his stories of dodging bombs, coping with explosions and living in the Iraqi desert. She would not say she was falling in love, but she was excited by this intriguing soldier with whom she felt she had a genuine connection — so much so that she was willing to help him financially.

But the charming American was not what he appeared. A few days ago, police in Ghana arrested Maurice Asola Fadola, 31, the man suspected of posing as the soldier and conning Mrs Cook out of £271,000.

Her case is thought to be the most serious example of a new kind of fraud, with international con men preying on emotionally vulnerable westerners. Police estimate that Britons are losing hundreds of millions of pounds through internet dating sites in “romance frauds”.

Mrs Cook (not her real name) does not appear a gullible or foolish woman. Yet, like other victims of the frauds, she was slowly and skilfully drawn in to a web of deceit woven by a resourceful and apparently talented liar.

Over months of online chatting she felt that she was really getting to know the American soldier, who went by the name of Steven Westmore.

He told her he was a year younger than her, and was ready to leave the army. He had a house in Texas, his son was studying medicine and his wife had died in a car crash — a common line used by such con men, police say. He sent her pictures depicting himself as a rugged, stetson-wearing American. She hoped they could meet once he left Iraq.

But when that time came, Steven told her things had gone wrong.

“We never spoke on the phone, as he told me they weren’t allowed mobile phones on army bases,” she said. “But one day, over instant messenger, Steven told me he had a problem. He was preparing to leave and had sent his luggage back to the States with a friend, a diplomat from Trinidad, who had to travel via Ghana.

“But the Ghanaian authorities had impounded Steven’s luggage, and so I had to call Steven’s friend in Ghana to sort it out. And it turned out the friend needed £2,300 to release the luggage.

“I relayed this information to Iraq. And Steven said, 'I can’t do anything from here in the desert. Can you help?’?”

Mrs Cook took the first step down what proved to be a slippery slope to financial disaster. She sent the money to Ghana via MoneyGram on the promise that she would be repaid once Steven was back home.

But this was just the beginning. Next day she was told there were further problems and more money was needed: £20,000. Steven let Mrs Cook know that inside the suitcases was $8?million (£5.2?million) he had smuggled out of Iraq.

Most people, however kindly disposed, would surely have baulked at this point and, with hindsight, Mrs Cook can see that for herself. But although her husband knew she had been on a dating website, the couple operated a “don’t ask, don’t tell” approach within their marriage and Mrs Cook had told no one about her online relationship with Steven. There was nobody to make her see common sense.

“I just thought, 'Oh no, what have I got myself into here?’?” Mrs Cook said last week, wiping away tears. “I wanted to get my money back, and you end up thinking, well, if there is $8?million there, it doesn’t matter having to spend money as I will get my money back once the suitcases are released.”

Now dealing solely by telephone with the contact in Ghana, who told her that Steven was without internet access in Iraq, Mrs Cook became embroiled in a lengthy process to get her money back. Like a gambler trying to recoup her losses, the amount she was willing to spend to try to solve the problems rose — £100,000 for “legal fees”, £40,000 for “customs costs” and many thousands more.

She extended her overdraft, sold shareholdings and drained her retirement savings. Piece by piece, she dismantled the product of years of abstemious living — all the while concealing the truth from her husband, whose financial affairs were separate.

Mrs Cook sometimes found it hard to believe the intrigue in which she was caught up: a world of five-digit money transfers to Africa, suitcases full of money and a constantly evolving cast of characters, helpers of Steven, all needing her help to overcome one problem after another.

She was then persuaded by the “diplomat” to travel to Ghana — without telling anybody — where she hoped to conclude the protracted attempts to get her money back.

“I was really worried — I’d never been to Africa before,” Mrs Cook recalled. “But the diplomat told me it would speed things up, and I’d get my money back.

“I paid £500 for a 'visa’ and then someone just came to collect me from the airport and took me straight through customs — I suppose people at the airport were in on it, too.”

She was driven to a lavish house on the outskirts of the capital, Accra. Guarded by rott­weilers, it was a gold-plated and marble villa, complete with a gym, a swimming pool and a wardrobe bursting with unworn designer clothes.

Police suspect the property belonged to Fadola, who posed as the diplomat during Mrs Cook’s visit. The house may well have been built and furnished with the funds she sent to Ghana.

“I was scared at first,” she said. “When I look back, it’s terrifying thinking about what could have happened when I went there. I could have been kidnapped. It doesn’t bear thinking about.”

She stayed for two nights and it was on her return that Fadola, describing himself as a business associate, came into the picture under his own name, with police alleging that he offered to travel to Britain to pay back Mrs Cook in person. So she supported his visa application.

“And that was another £10,000 for the paperwork,” she said, managing a faint smile. “I sent him a payslip; an electricity bill; a council tax bill; household documents — all those things you’re not supposed to send out.

“I just wanted to get my money back, and then maybe finally meet Steven — who I believed was still in Iraq.”

In fact, Fadola’s attempts to seek a British visa were his undoing. It disclosed his true identity to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), which was working with the Ghanaian police in connection with the case of a disabled woman who was persuaded to sell her house and send funds to Ghana.

One night in March, the police knocked on Mrs Cook’s door and asked her if she knew a Maurice Asola Fadola.

Sitting in the London offices of SOCA last week, Mrs Cook said she still struggled to come to terms with how the situation escalated.

“You look back and think, 'How could I be so stupid?’ I’d never heard about these romance frauds before,” she said. “I thought that there was this poor man stuck in Ghana because of something Steven had done. And it had been passed over to me to help him. I thought it was all my fault.”

Fadola is in prison in Ghana facing questioning over money laundering and passport fraud.

SOCA officers went to the country last month to help mount a “sting” operation and caught him when he went approached officials to access some money they had sent.

“He showed no emotion,” said one of the SOCA officers. “I just said 'Hello Steven’ as he was led away in handcuffs.”

The case is not an isolated one. “At first we thought it was just people sending £50 here or there,” said Colin Woodcock, the head of SOCA’s fraud department, “but some people are being robbed of hundreds of thousands.”

More and more cases of romance fraud are being discovered. In August last year, Philip Hunt, 58, threw himself under a train after losing £82,000 in a romance fraud. He had met a Nigerian girl on the internet, who convinced him to spend the money with promises of starting a life together.

“These people are out to get people when they are very vulnerable and at a low ebb. They’re in there like vultures,” Mr Hunt’s former partner told the inquest into his death.

It was only recently that Mrs Cook told her husband what had happened, admitting the full extent of her losses in a telephone call. She did not want to discuss his reaction. Police hope to recover some of the £271,000 that she lost.

“I don’t know if I’ll get the money back,” she said. “I had saved all my life, worked hard, gone without, planning for my retirement. But I don’t think that is going to happen now.

“I just feel so stupid.”

End of Harriet Alexander's culled piece from the Telegraph.

Well, there we are, dear reader - and how shameful this shabby story is. But it is only the tip of the iceberg, one suspects.

As a matter of fact, about a couple of years ago, I was told the sad story of a Swiss German lady, who is said to live at Aplaaku near Wieja - and appears to be the 'prisoner' of the work-shy spongers she has apparently adopted as her family in Ghana.

They are milking the poor pensioner, who is said to be frightened that some harm might come to her, were she to rid herself of the sodden leeches. Pity.

Perhaps the question we must ask officialdom is: What are they doing to rid our country of the shameful activities of the many crooks who go online to rip vulnerable people around the world off?

They must take steps to rid our nation of the army of online fraudsters who have turned Ghana into a global superpower in internet fraud.

Kofi Thompson is a Ghanaian Columnist

Ghana Documents - EASY to Fake... !

Nurses and Midwives’ Council of Ghana apprehends fake nurse


Ghana Documents are so EASY to Fake... ! (Well - Ghanaian Officials know the original.... :-)  )
The Nurses and Midwives’ Council of Ghana has apprehended a 34-year-old lady for faking a State Registered Nurse (SRN) Certificate to apply for a nursing job at a private hospital in Tema Community 10.

Cecilia Aku Dovi was apprehended and handed over to the Tema Community 11 Police after authorities of the hospital forwarded a copy of the certificate for verification when she applied to work there three weeks ago.

Mr. Felix Nyante, Deputy Registrar in-charge-of Supervision and Regional Coordination of the Council, told the media on Tuesday that his outfit detected that the certificate number 14903 bearing the suspect’s name with an issuance date of August 23, 2005 was falsified.

Mr. Nyante further said that the original certificate which belonged to a male nurse was scanned, and Cecilia’s picture and name as well as the issuance date were superimposed on it.

He added that the SRN course was faded out in 1999 noting therefore that the issuance date on the said certificate was also a fake.

He indicated that further checks on the background of the fake nurse, revealed that Cecilia worked as a ward assistant at the Holy Family Hospital in Nkawkaw in 1999 after which her appointment was confirmed in February 2000.

In 2006, the suspect vacated the post for no reason and was summarily dismissed by the hospital management in July 2006.

Mr. Nyante explained that “the position of a ward assistant is an auxiliary grade while that of a SRN is a professional grade”.

He indicated that the suspect does not have the requisite training in nursing and therefore was a danger to quality health delivery to patient.

To rid health facilities of such impersonators, he stated that his outfit which is the regulatory body of nursing and midwifery in the country periodically embarks on verification of credentials of hospital staffs.

He pleaded with authorities of health facilities to always verify the authenticity of certificates presented to them for employment to safeguard the health of the public.

Cecilia, who said she resides at Kasoa in the Central Region, told the media that she collected the certificate from a friend and scanned it without his permission.

She added that even though she worked as a ward assistant with a Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination Certificate (SSSCE), she fancied the nursing job, which made her to falsify the certificate.