No. For foreign citizens who want to live permanently in the United States. These scammers target lonely, vulnerable, sometimes older adults that are looking for love. For Kweiku, romance scams are a transaction, not a crime. Also, for anyone interested in purchasing gold, it is important to request for the following documentation from the vendor: Depending on the quantities and hence stakes involved, a further due diligence may be conducted on the directors and/or shareholders of the entity you are dealing with. In the end, recovering the millions of dollars became a whole nightmare for the investor. According to EOCO's Abu Issah, the cafe boys are ready prey for the global syndicates which have taken hold in Ghana. So yes, it is horrible, we have scammers all around. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions. Your Report includes access to Unlimited: Property Information, Ownership History, Assessed and Market Value, Tax Payment History, and more Inofrmation available. However, the country has its fair share of bad publicity and recently, Ghana Scams has been on the increase. Victims are asked to submit their bank details and in some cases are also asked to pay a fee for successful completion of the transfer process. Gold is sold easily in Ghana for 2% discounted gold price with the AA Minerals and many other local refineries, smelting offices and dealer offices. Ambassador to Ghana Virginia Palmer Marking One Year Since Russias Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine, The Spelling Bee 2023 National Finals Remarks by Deputy Chief of Mission Nicole Chulick, World AIDS Day Remarks by Ambassador Virginia E. Palmer, USAID-supported Feed the Future activity connects agribusinesses to investors, Launch of the State of Ghanaian Media Report Remarks by Deputy Chief of Mission Nicole Chulick, U.S. Embassy Highlights Young Ghanaian Voices on Earth Day, U.S. and AmCham Engage Stakeholders on AI Opportunities for Innovation, Message for U.S. Citizens: U.S. Passport Fee Increase, Message for U.S. Citizens Dont Let the Elections Pass You By, Message for U.S. Citizens in Ghana: Travel and Repatriation Assistance, U.S. Embassy Accra Institutes Temporary Measures to Prevent and Contain the Spread of Coronavirus, U.S. Contact Gold2me.com Your chances of recovering your money are slim to none. nothing but a mud and fog that only naive and wannabe foreign buyers Victims can report the scam to the FBI at www.ic3.gov and might also consider alerting the dating website on which the scammer was encountered. Avoid sharing too much information on Facebook that could reveal your financial and social status. "I hear that there is some spiritual powers that they use," said Dr Yankson, from the Ghana Police. Convinced investors buy the story and put money into growing the investment. "So I give him some soap to go and use, so when he's using it to bath, he will say anything that he wants the white lady or the white man to do for him.". Furthermore, this type of crime is not a priority for local police and it is difficult to prosecute these cases. We respect your privacy. "It's widespread," says Ghana Police cybercrime unit director Dr Herbert Gustav Yankson. fake and forged documents to a naive, wannabe gold buyer, that is All Rights reserved. Now that your love is at its peak, this lover who most times resides in a different state is very sick, and they need help with their bill. "Some of them can give you $US2,000, maybe you tell him you want $US5,000 or 5,000 pounds or $5,000 Australian. It is these boys that the public is being warned against since it is believed that they swindle unsuspecting people into sending them a lot of money. Using the fake pictures and videos, the gold scammers then convince victims to provide huge amounts of money for the purpose of transporting the gold from the mining sites or specific locations to Accra for the said sale transaction. It's really hard times here baby," he tells her. Other times they claim to have been given a short break and need money to facilitate their travel. Zachary Hansen, a Georgia native, covers economic development and commercial real estate for the AJC. About 10 years ago, a potential client from abroad requested legal assistance in a gold transaction with local traders in Ghana. After selecting a profile, they message its owner. Fool's Gold: Inside Ghana's Million Dollar Scamming Syndicates The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network. Please be sure to check your spam/junk folder if you don't see it in your regular mail. They Posed as Soldiers in Love. Over 30 People Lost $2.1 Million. The scammers come up with a project that looks very viable. Online classifieds are alert messages sent through various mediums about a product, service or an offer with a URL. Here we are exposing few of the fake documents representing "She wanted to see me. Report scam to United States government-you goods is transferred over and other party becomes an owner. that they have a so called "Certificate of Ownership" and will provide Georgia couple lost $500K, tried to buy 200 pounds of gold from Ghana - ajc The scammers start a relationship over the internet then after a while start soliciting money to pay for a secure line so that you may talk. Like pampering that way. Gold scam: Ghanaian woman defrauds British man of 200,000 - Citi 97.3 FM Scammers are very smart people that will know your weaknesses in a short time. In other words, further due diligence ought to be conducted on any dealer who promises to supply above this maximum quantity per week. "Some are divorced and some their husbands are now dead.". You met online. Scams in Ghana have shifted from one on one conman to text messages asking you to deposit some money to redeem a lottery you have won. This company GLOBAL SECURITY & FINANCE COMPANY LTD. by its own If youre Read more . Ghana police has arrested another group of Ghana scammers who promised job offers into the military and asked for 2000 dollars from each job seeker in the name of entry fee. The court cases against those he helped arrest are still pending, but he says they are likely to be jailed. But the bigger question is how prepared is your nation to fight these. Kweiku sells perfume on the streets of Ghana's capital, Accra, to maintain a meagre income between Western Union transfers from a woman he seduces online. I do know that such wordings is not printed on any For present purposes, the gold sector may be categorized into two the large scale and the small scale, otherwise known as the artisanal small-scale mining (ASM). The number of the owner is advertised, most times. The motive of these Ghana Scammers is to pull out money as much as they can from the innocent people. While the Four Corners team is filming, Kweiku returns a missed video call from the woman and blocks his webcam with his finger so she can't see him. that such certificate of ownership is a "proof" of gold existence. Forgive me, I digress. The idea sounds good, so you send the money. A rich investor, usually foreign, expresses interest in purchasing gold. Certificate of Ownership is a fake document. Learn more about quality higher-education opportunities in the U.S. that you will not find anywhere else in the world. The Ghana police arrested three men involved in Ghana recruitment scam and are spreading awareness about Ghana recruitment job scam. We recently got a new guy from ghana, it's been a week since he was hired and today he asked 3 different guys at the shop if they would move to Africa with him and work in a gold mine, he said he has been all around looking for someone to start a gold mine with him . And I will make sure to make him happy, like he will fall in love with me.". States, there is no possibility to become a member FDIC. "So they graduate from the little boys to the big guys in town.". I wanted to check on you. SocialCatfish.com does not make any representation or warranty about the character or the integrity of the person, business, or entity about which you inquire, or the information available through our website or that you receive from us or any or our representatives. The scam sites are not run by fools; they know how to buy trust by taking their time before they make any financial requests. "I really want to come around this Christmas and see you," he says. Facebook Efforts to Stop Users from Fake Likes, The world's most prevalent social network said that to date, it has Money fraud is vast and is mostly done through the following schemes; These are usually good deals in great places. "Sometimes you will be talking to the person and you can even feel pity for that person: 'wow, this person, she's crying and all that,'" he said. Ghana is reconsidering a tax that's spurred an increase in gold smuggling from small mines, a trend that's depriving the country of much-needed revenue. The fire service officer took various sums of money from the recruits in the name of processing fees. get a clear idea to keep your information unscathed from hypocrites, One of the most recent spots in the world right now for. "The big fishes send the small boys on an errand to undertake preliminary activities for them and when they give them the feedback as to the victim they've got in touch with, they clamp down on them. Career Opportunities at AngloGold Ashanti (Ghana) Limited global companies, do not include the word "company" itself in the name No matter how lonely or desperate for love, you are, be smart. Scammers are very canny and always find reasons after getting you smitten to their charm. With the right tools, you can find s With the rise in popularity of online dating, the prevalence Read more , Locating a specific person on Tinder can be a challenging Read more , With over 50 million users worldwide, OnlyFans has become one Read more , Learn how to perform a Bumble search to find someones Read more , Are you looking for someones profile on Hinge and want Read more , For someone performing a Zoosk search to find someones profile, Read more , In a relationship, hearing someone say I love you can Read more , At Social Catfish, we interviewed a woman named Shannon who Read more , The LGBT community has turned to online dating websites and Read more , Have you ever wondered if sexting is cheating? The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user. 2023 MG Digital Media Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Some scammers pose as students and need money to clear up on school balances and graduation so that they may join you shortly after. Most victims are men. A very valuable product, gold scams in Accra Ghana are very common. Once again, this is to check the incident of fraudulent tampering with the Assay Certificate, which can always be verified with PMMC, if further due diligence ought to be done at any stage. Rent a store and make it a perfume shop. From the story the potential client told and the fake-looking documents they had received from the local traders, it was obvious that we had been contacted in the middle of a scam. Any information you can gather will be helpful, their name, email address, any phone number you may have, will be useful to identify this scammer. Scammers may also send messages indicating that a package arrived from overseas and needs some money to be paid so it can be released. These scammers use pictures of innocent real-time third party soldiers as their profiles to look convincing. They break your heart, steal your money, and disappear without a trace. She said they spent about $500,000 over the last seven years trying to obtain their shipment from the African gold broker, the report said. RAVO MINERALS SCAMMERS BRAVO MINERALS GOLD SCAMMERS GOLD SCAM Reg. This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced. The teenagers, known in Ghana as 'cafe boys' or 'browsers', are searching for middle-aged and elderly men in the US, Australia and Canada, and luring them to chat on Google Hangouts. It is important to note that for each assay of any sample, PMMC issues a certificate with distinct security features. gold dealers. A scammer will first ransack the internet for an ideal person, mostly on social sites. The purpose of this article is therefore to throw some light on the gold trade (retail) in Ghana and suggest ways by which persons may mitigate the risk of becoming subjects of fraud by unscrupulous persons. and there is simply no document that can be connected to a piece of Scammers and frauds in gold and precious metals in Africa - Orobel Christopher Williams, romance scammer from Ghana was arrested for having scammed two women of 300000 Euros. copy, I don't know. The military always has allowances anytime they are in a place they may need money, so the solicitors are a scam. He has faith in the justice system, explaining that people he exposed in the past now sit in jail, and that the courts work even if they take some time. He sometimes risks his life to cover stories, but he says this was somewhat less of a concern in this investigation. There is no such thing in business as "certificate of ownership". Romance Scams - U.S. Embassy in Ghana "He brought some white people to me," she said. These scammers work from internet cafs and are entirely portable and elusive. It includes; Some of the most common Ghana scammer are known as Sakawa boys who are often seen around spending lots of cash without any explainable sources of income. "The big guys make millions of dollars," he said. it cannot be a member FDIC as they are not at all connected to gold. Scammers are geniuses. How to avoid being caught in a common gold scam - MINING.COM We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work. You are already subscribed to our newsletter! We do in depth checks using our own proprietary online tools to verify things like images, social profiles, phone numbers, emails, jobs and a lot more to make sure that you have the most information about the person that you've met online. BROWSE SCAMMERS from Accra (Ghana) Found 1800 scammers. But fear for our lives, I think, was a bit more minimal in that story.. UGA student from Alpharetta lost more than $30K during 10-hour call with scammer, 'So darn believable': Cobb woman lost $35K during 11-hour call with scammers, Skirmish over historic house: Site of Union generals HQ could become a car wash, MARTA police investigating fatal shooting at East Point station, Mercer announces inaugural cohort of rural pediatric scholars, Report card: Falcons earn A for Power 5 draft, Police: Over 130 cars broken into at Stockbridge apartment complex, Man struck after getting out of vehicle left on I-75 after collision, Gator Rivers, Savannah commissioner, former Harlem Globetrotter, dies at 74, Scented candles. He considers her a prize client. When there is some larger transaction, a contract is Money, money, money! This refers to the act of sending fake emails to people posing as employees of very reputable banks that require customers to urgently fill in important information like pins and account numbers. "That should cover for us to play again as well. You're almost done! It is important to note that men and women are scammed by these scammers operating out of cafes in Ghana and Nigeria. The Bureau of Consular Affairs also has additional information on Internet Dating and Romance Scams. Your correspondent consistently uses lower case is and/or grammar not in keeping with their supposed life station or education level. You are promised repayment upon an inheritance of gold or precious gems. Typically the Ghana scammers will attach themselves quickly to an intimate romantic relationship with the victim. Seven years and about $500,000 later, the couple realized that the whole thing may have been too good to be true, since they still have not received their fortune. necessary, and it's the way we've been doing business since 2002, This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Sometimes I feel like, wow, this lady, she's really in some misery or pain because she really wants to see me and she can't see me. As with all life endeavors, especially with business transactions, due diligence is a sine qua non in gold transactions. But there were fears of them coming or not coming whether they were able to smoke us out or not. A romance scam is a confidence trick involving feigning romantic intentions towards a victim, gaining the victim's affection, and then using that goodwill to get the victim to send money to the scammer under false pretenses or to commit fraud against the victim. Where to report scams in Ghana has had to be considered due to the fraudulent level in the country. Banks in Ghana are not even operational past 5 in the evening! Before you can discuss personal information with people that are interested in you, do some background check. "Those who indulge in this as the perpetrators most of them are unemployed," Abu Issah, acting head of prosecutions at Ghana's Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), told Four Corners. Gold scams in Ghana - Mitigating the risk of fraud On Tuesday, September 14, 2020, one of the frontpage stories of the Daily Graphic was headed "Businessman in trouble over $1m gold scam".. Roswell couple scammed out of $500K, tried to buy 220 pounds of gold from Africa. They then proceed to say that they have gold bars that were caught being unlawfully transported by custom and they want to dispose them at a price lower than the market price. Even if the company does exist, it does not mean that this type of Scammers use this information to steal bank details, passwords and identity. Fool's Gold: Inside Ghana's Million Dollar Scamming Syndicates - YouTube Entrepreneurs are capitalising on the scam industry. In the aftermath of a scam, some people have also found camaraderie with in-person or online support groups which help underscore the breadth of the problem and allow people to see they are not alone. Mr. Giwa has taken 4500.00 American dollars from me in a scam. In instances where the purchaser is unable to be present in Ghana for the transaction, it is usually advisable to have an agent or representative in the country to oversee and supervise the transaction. Contradictory or vague statements about personal life and their past. "Sometimes I'm in Palestine, sometimes I'm in Iraq and we are helping keep peace in that country because there's a war going on," he said. Currency for "emergencies" The Nigerian/Ghana Emergency Scam Currency for "emergencies" The Nigerian/Ghana Emergency Scam. Your new love is plagued with medical or other tragedies that require a loan from you. Dont allow yourself to become part of this statistic. A 73 year old man became a victim of Ghana romance scam. Those fears are real and it happens in many other stories. They will fill all the gaps in your love life, and soon you are head over heels for them. A Ghanaian (I am not proud to write this) takes advantage of this interest and perpetuates fraud on the foreign investor. naive and stupid wannabe "buyers" of gold. A statement issued by Gold Fields indicated that these criminals lured their unsuspecting victims with offers of gold dust and gold bars originating from their company in Ghana. All about African gold deals, scams, fraud and reality about the gold But for the breaking of the ties of colonialism, perhaps that name would still have been apt for our country. On Tuesday, September 14, 2020, one of the frontpage stories of the Daily Graphic was headed Businessman in trouble over $1m gold scam. I think it should instil in me a sense of wanting to push the frontiers forever. Both men and women are targeted. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you. Locating a specific person on Tinder can be a cha Social Catfish is an online dating investigation service based in California, USA. Scammers target vulnerable people like the widowed, divorcees, disabled and single parents. Please don't push my nose by mentioning Mali or Congo or something like that. citizen correspondent turned out to be a fictitious persona created only to lure the U.S. citizen victim into sending money. For Kweiku, romance scams are a transaction, not a crime. Ghana scams | Africa romance and dating | Ghana Scammers warning It sounds like a brilliant idea, and most people fall prey. While we do pride ourselves on our thoroughness, the information available on our website or that we provide at times may not be 100% accurate, complete, or up to date, so do not use it as a substitute for your own due diligence, especially if you have concerns about a person's criminal history. In secret groups on Facebook's instant messaging service, WhatsApp, we found scammers sharing tips on mimicking American accents and female voices. Pretentious and self aggrandizing fake certificates of ownerships are Federal investigators uncover elaborate gold scam that cost victims of the company. Your new love is plagued with medical or other tragedies that require a loan from you. (use a. Scammers advertise Facebook profiles, stolen photos of military personnel and photo doctoring skills for fabricating IDs and even medical emergencies. Be the first to get hottest news from our Editor-in-Chief, Check your email and confirm your subscription. Ghana Gold Scam When your friend does try to leave the country, he/she gets into a car accident or is detained by immigration officials demanding payment, bribes, or proof of a certain amount of cash on hand for travel. 2023 by Socialcatfish.com. The government of Ghana ministry of mining deals with all matters on mineral scams while the ministry of finance tackles all financial scam, especially when it has to do with public offices. The only effective way to avoiding bank scams in Ghana is not responding to any of these emails immediately. The money extracted from victims in North America, Europe and Australia translates to enormous fortunes for the scammers who are eager to put weeks or months of work into getting a fine payout. This is how, in some cases, victims of romance scams are traded among criminals to be used in much larger crimes, including drug trafficking and money laundering. Its only later that they realize it was a fake. Love is a beautiful thing, and everyone seeks and longs to be in love. Another type of scam that is trending in the list of Ghana scam is the "job scam". That are many victims. On Tuesday, September 14, 2020, one of the front-page stories of the Daily Graphic was headed "Businessman in trouble over $1m gold scam .