At a shrine regarding the outskirts of Accra, businesswoman and celebrity priestess that is fetish Agradaa casts spells on her customers to aid them generate income.
Nana Agradaa takes 100 cedis ($26) a session from cafe guys to supply them the charged capacity to manipulate their victims.
We view as Nana Agraada invokes her spirits right in front of the idol that is wooden covered in pictures of westerners which were delivered to her by cafe men.
She chants, spits schnapps and pours talcum powder on the idols, as she shows certainly one of her many popular incantations with an associate.
“He brought some people that are white me personally,” she stated.
“The child wishes them to deliver him some quantity because he’s got been asking for the money nevertheless they never have compensated the amount of money.
“therefore i give him some detergent to get and make use of, when he is utilizing it to shower, he’ll state such a thing he desires the white woman or perhaps the white guy to accomplish for him.”
Superstition operates deep in Ghana and several think scammers count on juju, or secret.
“we hear there is some powers that are spiritual they use,” stated Dr Yankson, through the Ghana Police.
“Sometimes i am lured to think therefore, my buddy.”
2:09 Fetish Priestess Nana Agradaa casts a spell for a scammer’s western ‘client’
Cafe boys like Mohamed, Kweiku and Skidoo will be the bottom feeders in a worldwide enterprise which has spread from nearby Nigeria.
“those that have pleasure in this whilst the perpetrators — most of those are unemployed,” Abu Issah, acting mind of prosecutions at Ghana’s Economic and Organised Crime Office (EOCO), told Four Corners.
“But they’ve been really smart since it takes somebody having an intellect to take a seat and also fancy ways to get into this task and also to hoodwink some body.”
The FBI reports crime that is formidable which started in Nigeria have actually spread to a lot more than 80 nations and therefore are making huge amounts of bucks per year from frauds alone.
Based on EOCO’s Abu Issah, the cafe men are prepared victim when it comes to international syndicates which took hold in Ghana.
“the top dudes make vast amounts,” he stated.
“we now have Nigerian nationals along with other West African nationals who come here — and surely they will have their Ghanaian collaborators — in addition they share tips, which makes it therefore advanced even to find.
“the major fishes deliver the tiny men on an errand to try initial tasks they give them the feedback as to the victim they’ve got in touch with, they clamp down on them for them and when.
“so that they graduate through the small guys to the major dudes in the city.”
This is the way, in many cases, victims of love frauds are exchanged among crooks to be utilized in much bigger crimes, including medication trafficking and cash laundering.
The same as in Ghana’s internet cafes, scammers gather online to trade abilities, knowledge and fake identities in a massive market that is black on Twitter.
In public places Facebook teams, fraudsters share scripts, called “formats”, to operate their frauds.
You will find day-by-day platforms for each and every scam: on the list of hundreds discovered by Four Corners were army platforms, ill mom scripts, lotto formats, homosexual intercourse talk platforms, sugar daddy platforms and “trust and love” scripts.
Scammers advertise Facebook pages, taken pictures of army workers and picture doctoring abilities for fabricating IDs and also medical emergencies.
In key teams on Twitter’s instant texting solution, WhatsApp, we discovered scammers sharing tips about mimicking US accents and feminine sounds.
Within the WhatsApp teams, crooks marketed bank that is australian to launder cash and purchasers wanted to deliver gift ideas to Australian romance scam victims.
Scamming will pay well as well as for Skidoo, it really is a bottom that buy a mail order bride is brutal: West African fraudsters are using what exactly is owed in their mind.
“It may be somehow painful seeing a person who is of sufficient age to be your mom going right on through that nevertheless the important thing nevertheless continues to be, we have to survive,” he stated.
” The white individuals, they came down right here to colonise us, took exactly just just what belongs to us.
“They delivered our great-great grandfathers here, mistreated them, managed them like slaves, they did lots of injury to them. They’ve done us bad before and now we think it is time to back pay them.”
In Kweiku’s flat, we find a guide, Think and Grow deep by Napoleon Hill, by which his objectives are scrawled from the inside address:
” Target — desire: i need to get 25,000 cedis $6,690 by the termination of November 2019.
“Purpose/goal: 1. purchase a land of personal.
“2. Lease a shop and work out it a perfume store.
“Help me personally Lord! many thanks Lord!”
Kweiku additionally dreams of becoming an Afrobeats celebrity.
At a concert that is outdoor Accra, a huge selection of young Ghanians have actually gathered to dance, tune in to music and celebration.
Kweiku takes to the level in the front of the crowd that is small perform.
“In twenty years, I would like to be a large musician all over the world, a businessman and use the youth thus I can cause jobs when it comes to youth because that could be the primary thing this is certainly keeping us straight back,” he stated.
“that is why our company is indulging ourselves in this scamming and all of that.”
For Kweiku, relationship scam victims are genuine stepping rocks to their future.
“Sometimes you will end up speaking with the individual and you will also feel shame for the individual: ‘wow, this individual, she is crying and all that,'” he stated.
“We feel pity, however you too, you may need cash.”
View meet with the Scammers on Four Corners at 8.30pm on ABC TV and iView tonight.
Reporter: Sean Rubinsztein-Dunlop
Producer: Lesley Robinson
Digital Producer: Brigid Andersen
Digital Design: Georgina Piper