Money transfer agents now fronting for 419 fraudsters

The police are accusing some personnel of banks that are into money transfer transactions of assisting 419 tricksters to defraud Ghanaians and foreigners of huge sums of money through the Internet. Police say some staff of money transfer agencies are also deeply involved in the trade. A worried source at the Police Headquarters told Public Agenda that this development is gradually earning Ghana the unattractive title as a high Internet crime country. The source explained that these unscrupulous personnel connive with these “criminals” to defraud their victims, mainly foreign nationals of huge sums of money and in the end get their share. According to the police source, as many as 19 complaints of cases of Internet fraud are recorded weekly. These include romance fraud, which involves dating through the Internet, 419 frauds that normally involve treasures, gold fraud and money washing fraud which involves the use chemicals to wash coated money. Consequently, foreigners are gradually loosing interest in the security intelligence of the country. The source said whenever a complaint is made and a controlled delivery is put in place to hunt down such criminals, these unpatriotic personnel give the fraudsters hints and as a result they do not turn up to receive their ill-gotten money to enable the police arrest them. Sometimes the money transfer personnel withdraw the money on behalf of the fraudsters and hand it to them later. Foreign nationals, especially Nigerians dominate the Internet fraud, with the Ghanaian youth between the ages of 17 to 30 struggling to take over. These youth mainly residing in Nima, Mamobi and Mallam Atta suburbs in Accra log on to dating sites on the internet to create their on profiles with female names, while they attach photographs from websites of models to their supposed dates. Eventually, these fraudsters feign love and express interest to join their unsuspecting victims in their countries. The source said they begin to demand huge sums of money from their “lovers” to enable them process necessary documents to join them. These same fraudsters then pose as travel agents and send messages to the victims about the cost of travel arrangements. Afterwards, they ask for money to settle their families, either by buying or renting a property for them before they can leave to join their new found lovers. The fact is that after every payment, these fraudsters come out with another story.Finally, they call their victims on the supposed date of departure to inform them that they have been arrested by the security agencies at the airport for possessing gold. Therefore, the victims are required to send a huge amount of money before they could be released to board their flights. The police source said the victims upon suspicion at this stage contact the police who in turn put in place measures to hunt the fraudsters down, only for the bad nuts within the money transfer agencies to hint the fraudsters not to show up for such monies. The police are therefore calling on management of such banks and money transfer agencies to be on watch out for such personnel who are helping criminals to bring the name of the country into disrepute. The general public is being advised to be wary of such cheats in the society who have intensified their activities particularly in the heat of the Christmas festivities. The police have also cautioned operators of hotels to watch out for personnel in their facilities who are doubling as 419 agents and are helping fraudsters to defraud innocent foreigners.