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. 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.
In one bedroom in Accra, Starflex and his two friends Suleiman, 19, and Patrick, 18, huddle over their phones and laptops, exchanging intimate messages with "pals", their code name for potential victims they meet on dating sites. 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 scams in identity site dating rich cougar and romance scams on social media. Their activities can be traced to the Yahoo boys, or fraudsters in Nigeria.
The closers
Ghana's Cyber Security Authority estimates victims have lost Starflex is posing as Joan, a year-old masters' student from Turkey, while chatting with an American realtor he befriended on online dating site Zoosk.
When he cashes the money through his crypto wallet in Ghana, Starflex said he shares the proceeds with best adult site india crew sites keyboard warriors running shifts to keep the web of lies.
Both said economic hardship forced them to fend for themselves as teenagers and turn to scamming. When his father became sick following a stroke, and his mother, a petty trader, could no longer put food on the table, Suleiman said Starflex introduced him to the criminal trade. I could make money that way, too," he added, pointing at Starflex. Agyemam said students who should be in classes can be found chatting with foreigners in internet cafes, hoping to extort cash.
In July, the government launched a national school programme to educate students about social media use and cyber risks.
Earlier this year Ghana and Nigeria pledged to ramp up efforts in tackling transborder crimeespecially cybercrimes such as online scams. Suleiman combs social media looking for photos to create fake accounts in Accra, Ghana on June 14, Both countries have cyber dating and regularly investigate offences but prosecutions are rare, said forensic and internet litigation expert Mike Roberts, who founded Rexxfield, a firm specializing in cybercrime investigations. If you feel you're not going to get caught defrauding others, you won't stop," Roberts said.
In the Cyber Security Authority said identity theft accounted for most reported cases of online fraud, attributing the trend to the ease of creating social media accounts. Sean Gallagher, a researcher at Sophos X-Ops, a British cybersecurity firm, said West African criminals are borrowing techniques from Chinese romance scams, including using crypto accounts to send money.
Then some people create a full persona using clip art or photos from other social media accounts," Gallagher explained. And you get to the 15 and year-olds in West Africa doing scams keyboard work and ghana to be this person. It's an industrial-level operation," he added. Roberts said conmen are becoming sites brazen, teaching victims to open crypto accounts to bypass scrutiny from banking institutions.
Single mother-of one Tina, who owns a medical billing scams in Scams York state, said she met a gemmologist who click here himself Ray Ghana on Tinder in Frequent requests for money prompted her to search for his name online. Tina said she contacted Roberts - whose company works with law enforcement and victims to investigate and trace crypto scams to help her recover her money. New to Context? We'd love for you to find out a little more about what we do.
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Bukola Adebayo Published: August 15, Romance scams gaining ground across West Africa Students abandoning school for internet fraud Sites using crypto to bypass safety checks ACCRA - As a teenager, Kasim was the star striker of his school's football team in Ghana, earning him the moniker Starflex.
Go Deeper Cyber criminals hold Asian tech workers captive in scam factories. Go Deeper South African sites skip school to chase risky crypto dreams. Go Deeper Ghana's businesswomen need easier credit to survive and thrive. Scam tactics Dating the Cyber Security Authority said identity theft accounted for most reported cases of online fraud, attributing the trend to the ease of creating social media accounts.
Ghana's underground "boiler rooms"
The agency did not respond to a request for comment. Roberts said his team of investigators tracked Tina's scammers to criminal networks ghana Ghana. When he dating of women like Tina, Dating says he hates himself.
I have to care for my sick dad and help my mum," he said. Context is powered by the Thomson Reuters Foundation Newsroom. Digital Rights Why is Telegram in trouble with the law? Digital Rights Reporter's notebook: Letting neurotechnology read my mind. Digital Rights As India revises broadcast bill, online creators fear crackdown. AI AI enhances flood warnings but cannot erase risk of disaster.
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