Ghana Must Clamp Down On Internet Fraud | Feature Article 2011-07-09: "Ghana and Nigeria are becoming synonymous with internet fraud as a Google search will reveal. Last month, at a town hall meeting in New York City with the Vice President His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, I raised the serious issue of internet fraud in Ghana. Whilst his response showed that the government was grappling with the problem, it also showed that most Ghanaians were not aware of how sophisticated this crime had become.
There still persists the notion that most of those foreigners being scammed in internet fraud scams – also called 419 or Sakawa - are greedy persons eager for quick riches. This is no longer the case. The criminals no longer send cheap emails saying someone has died in a plane crash leaving millions of dollars or that the son of a deceased African dictator with hidden millions is willing to transfer the money into a foreigner’s bank account for a share. The scammers know that foreigners no longer fall for these cheap scams. Hence the more sophisticated varieties."
