The two suspects who use the names Yaw Owusu or Emmanuel Osei, 28, and Isaac Akye or Hope Ahetoh,36, and a number of aliases, are said to have engaged in fraudulent sale of cars using tonaton.com, an online trading platform.

Victims

Briefing journalists in Accra yesterday, the Accra Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Osabarima Oware Asare Pinkro III, said the suspects were arrested after two victims who had lost GH¢50,000 and GH¢80, 000 respectively as a result of the fraudulent deal reported the matter to the Osu and Tesano police.

He explained that Owusu and Akye, who had earlier been granted bail by an Accra Circuit Court for similar offences, continued in their illegal activity while the first cases were still pending before the court.

Osabarima Pinkro said the suspects, on February 28, 2017, advertised a Hyundai Santafe for sale on tonaton.com and were contacted by one of their victims.

He said the victim claimed he spoke to a man who introduced himself as Emmanuel Osei, the owner of the vehicle, and the two agreed that they would meet for the vehicle to be inspected and tested.

Two days later, Osabarimah Pinkro said, Emmanuel Osei was said to have informed the victim that he would send a man identified as Hope Ahetoh, and another unidentified man to bring the car to the office of the victim for testing and inspection as agreed.

Following the inspection and test drive, the victim is said to have expressed interest and agreed on a bargained price of GH¢85,000.

He said the victim, however, arranged to make an initial payment of GH¢50,000 and pay the rest later which Emmanuel agreed to.

On March 10, 2017, he said, the victim took Ahetoh and the unidentified man to the Osu Branch of Ghana Commercial Bank to transfer  GH¢50,000 into the account of Emmanuel Osei.

The Regional Commander said after the transfer, the victim said he came out of the bank and found that the car and its occupants had disappeared.

Osabarima Pinkro said a report was subsequently made to the Osu police.

He said a CCTV clip retrieved from the bank helped the police to identify the two men, who incidentally were being prosecuted for a similar offence.

Arrest

Osabarima Pinkro said while investigations were ongoing the suspects used the same modus operandi to defraud another victim at Tesano.

He said on March 23, 2017, a teacher at the New Juaben Senior High School, Koforidua, in the Eastern Region saw an advertisement of a bus on tonaton.com and expressed interest.

He said after meeting the two men, they agreed on a price of GH¢80,000 for the bus.

After paying for the bus, the victim was asked to go with Owusu to a garage at Achimota for the keys, but while on the way the suspect tried to abscond.

The victim is said to have prevented him from absconding and raised an alarm leading to the arrest of Yaw.

The suspect was later handed over to the Tesano police but while he was at the police station, Akye showed up to present the money to the victim so that his accomplice could be freed and he was also arrested.

–

Source: Graphic.com.gh

The post Two men arrested for online fraud appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, there were 3,889 victims of so-called romance fraud last year, who handed over a record £39m.

Action Fraud, the UK’s cyber-crime reporting centre, says it receives more than 350 reports of such scams a month.

One woman who lost more than £300,000 says she felt emotionally “brutalised”.

Nancy – not her real name – is 47, and a single mother from North Yorkshire, who runs her own business.

In 2015, after her marriage broke down, she signed up to dating site Match.com.

After a few days she made contact with someone calling himself Marcelo from Manchester, an attractive Italian who was working in Turkey, with whom she had “a rapport and similar values”.

“Marcelo” soon persuaded Nancy to move their chat off the dating website and on to an instant messaging service. The two began exchanging messages from morning till night.

After about six weeks, Marcelo said he had been mugged in Turkey and was unable to pay his workers before returning to the UK, when he and Nancy were due to meet. He also said his son was in hospital and needed surgery.

Nancy said she was uncomfortable with the situation but ended up “reluctantly” sending 3,650 euros (£3,160).

“It escalated unbelievably quickly, so straight away it was the medical fees, then it was money for food, money needed to pay rent, money for taxes to get out of Turkey.

“I wasn’t comfortable, and then I got so far in I couldn’t get myself out, and I didn’t want to walk away having lost £50,000 or what-have-you, so you keep going in the hope that you’re wrong and this person is genuine.”

Nancy says she’s now facing bankruptcy after having lost “over £300,000, maybe even over £350,000”.

“That’s really frightening, and the other aspect is that somebody’s got inside your head, and they’ve just brutalised you emotionally. In some ways I’m not sure I’ll ever recover from that.”

Match.com says it provides regular advice on how to stay safe and suggests members keep conversations on the site “so that our customer care team can identify abnormal activity”.

Online safety advice

• Criminals who commit romance fraud trawl through profiles and piece together information such as wealth and lifestyle, in order to manipulate their victims
• Police can investigate and help to provide support, but often cannot get the money back
• It is very simple for fraudsters to cover their tracks by masking IP addresses and using unregistered phone numbers
• Never send money to someone online you have never met
• Think twice about posting personal information which could be used to manipulate or bribe you

Source: Action Fraud

–

Source: BBC

The post Online dating fraud victim numbers at record high appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.