Fraud in Ghana is mostly not technical. It is a phone call from somebody confident, at a moment when you are busy, asking for one number.
The defences are boring and they work.
The rules that stop most of it
- Never share a PIN, a password or a one-time code. No bank, network or agency will ever ask. Not to verify you, not to fix a problem, not ever.
- Hang up and call back on the number you already have. Not the number that called you, and not the one in their message.
- Check your balance yourself, in the app or on USSD, rather than believing an SMS about it.
- Read the recipient name back before confirming any transfer.
- Slow down. Urgency is the tool. “This offer closes today” and “your account will be blocked in one hour” are the same sentence.
Mobile money fraud
The most common category by a wide margin, and it has its own entry.
SIM swap
Your phone goes dead and someone else starts receiving your codes.
— SIM swap
Fake shops and marketplace fraud
Instagram and WhatsApp carry an enormous amount of legitimate Ghanaian commerce, which is exactly why the fake version works.
- Pay on delivery where you can, and inspect before paying.
- Be suspicious of a price well below everyone else’s.
- Check the account age and the comments, not the follower count.
- Meet in a public place for a second-hand handover, in daylight.
- Never pay a “delivery deposit” to a seller you cannot identify.
Investment and Ponzi schemes
Ghana loses a great deal of household money to these every few years, and the marketing is always excellent.
The single check that works: is the operator on the Bank of Ghana’s or the Securities and Exchange Commission’s list of licensed institutions? If not, there is nothing to discuss and no recourse when it ends.
— Ghana’s regulators — Fintech apps
Romance and impersonation fraud
Both directions matter here. Ghanaians are targeted by these scams, and Ghana also has a reputation abroad for producing them — which means a Ghanaian transacting internationally sometimes faces suspicion that has nothing to do with them.
If someone you have never met in person asks for money, that is the answer, regardless of how long you have been talking.
Employment and visa scams
A job that asks you to pay for it is not a job. Neither is a visa agent who guarantees an outcome.
— Finding a job in Accra — Ghana visas
In the first hour after it happens
Speed is most of what determines whether money is recovered.
- Call your bank and your mobile money provider and freeze the account. Ask for a reference number.
- Call your network if a phone or SIM is involved.
- Change the password on your email, because it is how everything else is recovered.
- Report to the police, and get the report. Insurers and banks will ask.
- Report to the Cyber Security Authority, which is the national point for cybercrime and online fraud.
- Write down the timeline while you remember it: numbers, times, amounts, names used.
Reporting matters even when the money is gone
Most individual reports do not get money back. Patterns get numbers blocked and accounts closed, and patterns only exist because people report.
Protecting yourself in advance
- Two-factor authentication on email and anything financial — an app, not SMS, wherever the service allows it.
- A different password on your email from everything else.
- A PIN on your SIM, which most people never set.
- Transaction alerts on, so an unauthorised transfer is not discovered at month end.
- Know your USSD codes for blocking a wallet, so you are not looking them up in a panic.
Your data
The Data Protection Commission handles complaints about the misuse of personal data, and any organisation processing it in Ghana is meant to be registered with it.