Ghana dating scams online

Ghanaian influencer extradited to US in $2M romance scam targeting older Americans

Sign up here. New Tab , opens new tab. Futures linked to Canada's main stock index rose on Friday as oil prices gained, a day after unexpectedly softer U. S inflation data boosted chances of a September rate cut by the Federal Reserve. Skip to main content. Exclusive news, data and analytics for financial market professionals Learn more about Refinitiv. Romance scams gaining ground across West Africa. Students abandoning school for internet fraud. Scammers using crypto to bypass safety checks. By Bukola Adebayo.

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NY defense lawyer Countries throughout West Africa have a reputation for residents perpetrating scams against people in the United States and Europe. Ghana is no exception. While Nigeria is best-known for advance fee scams where people pay to help fake Nigerian princes get funds out of the country, Ghana is better known for online dating and romance scams. However, any type of fraud schemes operated by people in Ghana can be considered Ghana scams… and can lead to criminal prosecution in the United States if U.

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As a teenager, Kasim was the star striker of his school's football team in Ghana, earning him the moniker Starflex. But the year-old has since abandoned both his studies and football for a vocation that keeps him up at night: finding and luring victims into online romance scams. To bait a suitor, they comb Facebook and Instagram, swiping photos of influencers, actresses and adult film actors to create fake accounts on dating sites. Starflex and his sidekicks are known as the Sakawa boys — meaning 'putting inside' in the Hausa language, a young generation of school drops-outs in Ghana who dabble in identity theft and romance scams on social media. Their activities can be traced to the Yahoo boys, or fraudsters in Nigeria.

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Sakawa Boys: Meet Ghana's online romance scammers

Bukola Adebayo. Staflex pictured by his laptop in Accra, Ghana on June 14, Poverty and unemployment are driving Ghana's youth into the dark underbelly of identity theft and romance scams.

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