Ghana - Internet money fishing a nuisance and a net pest

Ghana flag colors

A few years ago and still I got/get e-mails from the middle-east and Africa. Those letters are about some deceased person with millions of US dollars to collect (for me) and where my name appears in a will. Or as in the most recent letter from Syria where the "right hand" of Bashar al Assad needs to move millions of dollars in funds from Syria out of the country asking me for assistance for a good provision. Now, my Skype account I left open for anyone to contact me and yes it started happening even here a few years ago. The calls that came in were exclusively from Ghana even though callers profiles listed origins from many different countries and often outside of Africa. The caller usually appearing a as girl in her twenties, starting off politely addressing me with Mr, dear or darling, later when asked for who they are and what they were doing replying with a template story as being an orphan with mothers and fathers killed in accidents or as in many cases killed in the Sudan wars then migrating to an uncle or aunt in Ghana, to live in a hut and there is a sick sibling too. The communication goes on with as it appears template questions for the called, anything from social, love, sex and finally economy. Well into the conversation you tell them that if they would like to continue chatting with you they better get themselves a Facebook page and then sending you an invitation. You may get an answer like "no, I not going to do that, I love you and I am very jealous, I don't want anybody else here (Ghana) to nab you from me". OK, next thing is that they want your e-mail address to continue communicating. Wow, after a few minutes of talking they ask you for your Internet identity, of course you already know what that could lead to so you decline, Knowing what will come next, a request for something material like money. I do not know what sort of victims they are looking for but I believe older senior persons appearing on the net as financially stable as they believe that those easily goes heart-broken with a sob story willing to open up their wallets.

Very often when the callers have a profile photo it is one of a young western woman close to movie star looking blond girl. Lately they started listing themselves as US residents. Often their name in Skype doesn't correspond with anything on social medias like Google+ or Facebook but when you get a match sooner or later you may see another face and even if it still is the photo of a woman it may be a man.

Some examples: I get a call on Skype, according to the profile, the name is an English one and the appearance is of a blond beautiful woman in her 30:ties. The name does not appear on Facebook. I tell her that if she wants to talk to me she must do it through social medias, she says OK and nothing happens for several weeks when I get a contact request on Facebook. I check her page out and she has profiled herself as from LA, USA. After accepting she immediately takes the back-door that is starts texting me, addressing me with "darling". She tells me that she is in Ghana, so I ask her what she is doing there, she replying "doing some work, does it matter what I do?". Then she goes silent for a couple of days, sporadically getting back to me with that typical "darling" then disappearing again. I take a new peek at her page and this time her profile photo is that of 20- year old African girl but still from LA. A nuisance only.
Another profiles herself as it appears correctly but when communications goes dry she gets to her point, she wants me to buy her a new laptop, I say no and I leave. Next day she texts me again and just after texting a few minutes she asks me for 100 USD so she can pay her landlord for an electric bill. I politely say no. Later in the afternoon I get another call from an unknown person. According to the Skype profile it is a blond beautiful girl from the USA. As always I receive the request for "add me to your contact list" and I reply - no, explaining that the only way to befriend me is through Facebook, "she" replies: I understand. Checking the name up on Facebook I see a profile photo of a young fairly attractive African girl from Ghana but in the profile album there is less attractive lady listed first, probably the owner of the account. The girl that wanted 100 USD gets back and I tell her about my latest call, she ask me for the name, then comes telling me that it is a scammer and a man behind the woman's page. She continue nagging me about money, I say no and she goes bombarding me with "add me to your contacts". This is when I start blocking these people. Those were just a few examples of numerous Ghana calls whereof many insulted me when I declined to give them money.

Is this a national decease of Ghana? I am posting an excerpt from a recent Ghanaian net publication "Today" with title: "Can Ghana stop begging donors for help":
"IRONICALLY, instead of pushing out of our cocoons by ourselves, we go out and beg for others to come and help us, crippling ourselves in the process. Our farms are crippled. Our rivers are crippled. Our environment is crippled. Our industries are crippled. Our schools are crippled. Our local talents are crippled. Yet we look for some help from outside"

The article is directed towards business and public organizations yet this begging seem to trickled down to an individual level. Individual Ghanaians reach out begging for help to much larger extent than any other corner of the world. Thinking about it, there seem to be nothing sinister in the begging it is something that for some reason has become national culture impregnating the entire Ghanaian society.

I have had the policy to be open with myself making it possible for people on the planet to contact me, but I am tired of this, it takes time, it is no fun as suspicion already is deeply rooted within me when I receive a call on Skype, their preferred medium for contact. I don't like when they continue to insist nagging me for for money, when they insult me or bombarding me with "add me to your contact list" after a no. I disabled public contact on Skype as I had enough of Ghana calling me.

In one of my recent "Tweets" about Ebola I said: "How should we see a black person on the street? A potential for acquiring Ebola? People are scared in Europe, reminds of Aids", A person replied: "we should see him as he is, a man from a continent that brings nothing good. sad, but true.

Sad but true.