The most common way to lose a large sum of money in Accra is to hand a rent advance or a land payment to someone who does not own the property.

It is not a rare, exotic risk. It is routine, it is organised, and the amounts involved — 12 months of rent, or the price of a plot — are life-altering.

Rental scams

The fake landlord

Someone shows you a property, takes your advance, and disappears. They may be a caretaker, a tenant, a relative of the owner, or a complete stranger with a copied key.

How to avoid it:

  • Meet the owner in person. Not a representative, not a cousin, not “the landlord is in London”.
  • See proof of ownership — the title, the indenture, or a land certificate — and check the name matches their ID.
  • Ask the neighbours who owns the building. Two minutes, and it catches most of these.
  • If the owner genuinely is abroad, ask for a power of attorney and verify it. Then be more careful, not less.

The double let

The same property is let to several tenants, each paying an advance, each turning up on moving day.

How to avoid it: insist on a written tenancy agreement before payment, get a receipt naming the exact period, and take possession promptly. A landlord resisting a move-in date has a reason.

The agent who is not an agent

Collects viewing fees for properties that are already let, or do not exist.

How to avoid it: commission is paid on success, not before. Small transport fees are normal; large up-front payments are not. Advance rent goes to the landlord, never through the agent.

The property that is not finished

Real landlord, real property, and a promise that the tiling, the gate and the water connection will be done before you move in. You pay a year. Nothing gets finished.

How to avoid it: put outstanding works in the tenancy agreement with dates, withhold a portion until they are complete, or price the property as it stands today.

Land fraud

Buying land in Ghana is substantially riskier than renting, and the sums are larger.

Double and triple sales

The same plot sold to several buyers, often by a family member with no authority to sell, sometimes by someone with a genuine but partial interest.

Selling family or stool land without authority

Much land in Ghana is held by families or by stools and skins under customary tenure. A valid sale requires the consent of the properly constituted family or stool, not simply one member who claims to speak for it.

This is the single largest source of land litigation in Ghana.

Land guards

Armed groups who take physical possession of a plot, whether on behalf of a claimant or entirely on their own account, and demand payment to let you develop it.

Land guarding is a criminal offence under the Land Act 2020 (Act 1036). It nonetheless happens, particularly on the outskirts where plots sit undeveloped for years.

State-acquired land

Land already acquired by government for a road, a pylon route or a public project, sold on as if it were free.

The full guide to buying land

Warning signs

  • Pressure to pay today. “Another person is coming this evening.” Sometimes true. Usually the point.
  • A price well below the market. There is a reason, and you will find it later.
  • Cash only, no receipt, no agreement.
  • The owner is permanently unavailable.
  • Documents you are shown but not allowed to photograph.
  • A refusal to let you do a search at the Lands Commission. For land, this ends the conversation.
  • Payment to a personal account with a name that does not match the seller.

Before you pay anything

  • Meet the owner, and see their ID
  • See proof of ownership, and photograph it
  • For land: conduct an official search at the Lands Commission
  • For land: visit the site with someone who knows the area, and ask neighbours who owns it
  • Get a written agreement before money moves — What to check
  • Get a receipt naming the amount, the period and the property — Template
  • Use a traceable payment. Bank transfer or MoMo leaves a record; a bag of cash does not.
  • For anything large, use a lawyer. The fee is a rounding error against the sums involved.

Diaspora buyers are specifically targeted

Buying remotely, paying quickly, and having no local network to check a seller is exactly the profile fraudsters look for. If you are buying from abroad, appoint someone you actually trust — not someone recommended by the seller — and do the Lands Commission search before any money moves.

If it has already happened

  1. Report to the Ghana Police Service. 191, or go to the nearest station. Land fraud cases are handled by CID.
  2. Gather everything. Messages, receipts, transfer records, photographs of documents, names, phone numbers.
  3. Get a lawyer. Civil recovery is separate from any criminal case and is often the route that actually returns money.
  4. For rental disputes, the Rent Control Department mediates and is free.
  5. Report the mobile money wallet to the network immediately if funds moved that way. Speed genuinely matters.