The Cyber Crime Unit of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service (GPS) has unmasked an online investment scam that has been used to dupe thousands of Ghanaians.
Two of such online investment scams have been identified as Savanna Brokage and Peer-to-Peer which have not been registered with regulator, Bank of Ghana and hence do not posses the licence to operate.
The victims of the scam are reported to have lost various sums of money ranging from GH¢200 to GH¢15 million.
Arrests
According to The Director General of the CID, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Mrs Maame Yaa Tiwa Addo Danquah, the police have arrested four suspects in connection to the illegal online investment platform from Kumasi and Sunyani, in the Ashanti and Brong Ahafo Regions of Ghana respectively.
How the Scammers operate
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.
The unsuspecting investors were then made to deposit money into the online accounts through their bank accounts or mobile money merchants.
After making the deposits, the victims are able to log into their online accounts to track their investment but after a while their online account on the platform was unavailable with all the monies in them and that ended their investment.
She explained that because the scammers did not have physical addresses, their victims were unable to trace them.
DCOP Mrs Addo Danquah cautioned the public to be vigilant in their dealings online and to be wary of offers that promised unrealistic returns
