Police uncover online investment scam

The Cyber Crime Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service (GPS) has uncovered an online investment scam that has been used to dupe thousands of Ghanaians in three months.

The victims are said to have lost various sums of money ranging between GH¢200 and GH¢15 million.

So far, the police have arrested four persons suspected to be behind the illegal online investment platform from Kumasi, in the Ashanti Region and Sunyani in the Brong Ahafo Region.

Two of such online investment scams have been identified as Savanna Brokage and Peer-to-Peer which have not been registered with the Bank of Ghana and do not have a licence to operate.

The Director General of the CID, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Mrs Maame Yaa Tiwa Addo Danquah, who announced this at a closing ceremony of a six-week training programme for 77 detectives drawn from the GPS, the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) and the Military Police of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) at the Ghana Police Detective Training Academy in Accra yesterday, has warned the public to shun such online investment deals.

The training programme was organised with support from the National Crime Agency of Britain.

Modus Operandi

She said the scammers often invited people online to join an investment group with the promise of unusual high returns after an online account was opened for interested persons.

Mrs Addo Danquah said interested investors were made to deposit money into the online accounts through their bank accounts or mobile money merchants.

“The investors are able to log into their online accounts to track their investment but after a while, they would find out that their account on the online platform was unavailable,” she said,  and that ended their investment.

She explained that because the scammers did not have physical addresses, their victims were unable to trace them.

The Head of the National Crime Agency of the British High Commission in Ghana, Mr Neil Abbot, in his remarks, said it was important for detectives to be a step ahead of criminals.

He urged the trainees to network among themselves and work together to fight crime and make Ghana safe.