Tricksters on the loose

Isaac Yeboah Jul - 08 - 2013 , 02:51

The Police Criminal Investigations Department (CID) has cautioned the general public to keep information about them, particularly their telephone numbers and residential and postal addresses from strangers because, “there are a lot of tricksters on the loose”.

Complimentary cards, car stickers, and social network platforms, especially Facebook have also become easy conduits for the commission of fraud by confident tricksters as they readily reveal vital information about potential victims to criminals.

In a telephone interview with the Public Relations boss at the CID Headquarters, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Joseph Benefo Darkwa, he said, “The new order is this; a criminal gets your number and tells you that a relative abroad has sent some items through a given Airline or an agency and that you are required to pay some fees for delivery”.

“The criminals manage to collect money from unsuspecting victims and then direct them to meet them at the airport for assistance to retrieve their packages only for the victims to realise rather too late that they have been duped,” he explained.

According to the police chief, the fraudsters get information about their victims through a lot of sources particularly the Internet where people literally expose themselves to criminals on social network websites, especially Facebook.

Others get to know about the workplaces, churches, former schools, associations etc., of potential victims as indicated on the stickers that they put on their vehicles and then use such information to defraud them.

Recounting her experience to The Mirror, a resident of Accra, Mrs Hadiza Quansah, said she was duped by a man who confidently struck an acquaintance with her around the Gold House traffic lights on the Nima highway after he had mentioned the name of her company and claimed to be a friend to one of her colleagues.

“I later realised that the fraudster got to know where I worked just by reading the information on my company’s sticker, which I had on the windshield of my car. The trickster also referred to someone in my office and managed to convince me to part with some money, as he appeared quite genuine,” she recalled.

Another victim who pleaded anonymity said a con man used his (the victim’s) complimentary card to dupe a top restaurant at Osu in Accra, after he had had a good lunch and did not want to pay.

After eating the food and washing it down with some drinks, the swindler complained about the food and threatened to take his complaints to the media.

When the officers at the restaurant pleaded with him to calm down, the crook flared up and dropped a complimentary card on the table and walked away “angrily”. It turned out that the card belonged to a journalist at a popular media house in Accra.

Another resident of Accra, Mr Abdul Aziz said he once bumped into a man who, upon seeing him, picked up “something” from the ground. The man later told him that what he had taken from the ground was money.

“The stranger said he had found dollars and since I was the only one who had seen him take the money he would share it with me”.

“He said he did not have time to go to the Forex Bureau to change his share of the money so I should give him the Cedi equivalent of his share and keep all the dollars. I saw through his trick and ignored him,” Mr Aziz recounted.

A source at a hotel in Accra (name withheld) told The Mirror that some charlatans also constantly pick information from the media about conferences and corporate events held in hotels.

They dress up well and walk confidently to the venues to eat the sumptuous meals and drinks served and also steal from the participants.

“Some even sit through week-long conferences uninvited and enjoy three square meals a day and also steal items from the genuine participants without being noticed”.

“As a hotel we are not allowed to put close circuit television (CCTV) cameras inside the conference rooms because that may compromise the trade secrets of our business clients and that may make it easier for criminals to operate inside the conference rooms but not in the hotel as a whole,” the source explained.