Keypoints:
- Ghana fraudsters target British women online
- Crimes justified as colonial ‘digital reparations’
- Victims manipulated into loyalty despite losses
FRAUDSTERS in Ghana are targeting British women in elaborate online scams, claiming that their crimes represent a form of ‘retributive justice’ for colonial exploitation, according to research reported by British daily The Telegraph.
Accra, the Ghanaian capital, has emerged as a centre for so-called ‘Sakawa Boys’—cyber criminals who create fake identities on Facebook and other platforms. These men often pose as white professionals or soldiers in order to lure Western women into long-distance relationships. Over months of communication, the fraudsters build trust before fabricating stories of medical emergencies or personal crises, ultimately persuading victims to transfer large sums of money. Some women have lost hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The research, conducted by Dr Suleman Lazarus, a criminologist at the London School of Economics, involved interviews with 13 Ghanaian fraudsters and five police officers. Dr Lazarus told The Telegraph that many offenders openly framed their activities as historical payback, citing the legacy of slavery and colonial resource extraction.
Colonial legacy as justification
Ghana, formerly known as the Gold Coast, was colonised by Britain in 1874. The country’s abundant gold and its role in the transatlantic slave trade made it central to imperial exploitation. Independence was achieved in 1957, but some Ghanaians see cyber crime as a way of reclaiming wealth lost to the empire.
Dr Lazarus reported a common phrase among the Sakawa Boys: ‘They [white men] exploited our ancestors with mirrors and gunpowder; we will reclaim our resources with computers and brains.’
One fraudster interviewed, who identified himself as Kojo, told researchers: ‘There was a time when our ancestors were stripped of their dignity and freedom. Back then, the white colonialists came with promises of trade and progress, but what did they deliver? Chains. Enslavement. Humiliation. But today here we are, smarter… we are the architects of a new era, an era where we turn the tables and reclaim what was taken.’
Another scammer, Justice, declared: ‘They took more than just the gold, cocoa and the riches of our land. They took our people, bound them and shipped them across oceans. Now, we are bringing back dollars from overseas.’
Victims manipulated into loyalty
British and American women are the main targets of these scams. Fraudsters typically impersonate respectable white men—such as bankers, government officials or military officers—to appeal to women seeking romance online.
In one case cited by The Telegraph, a middle-class British woman was manipulated into sending huge sums to a Ghanaian posing as a US soldier. After a year of deception, she travelled to Ghana to meet him and discovered a much younger man with no military connection. Despite the exposure, she reportedly continued to defend him, saying he ‘needed the money more’ and was reluctant to press charges.
Dr Lazarus explained: ‘The psychological and financial toll on her was immense. These women are often seeking companionship online, and scammers exploit emotional vulnerability. Offenders believe middle-aged women are more forgiving, and therefore more likely to pardon them.’
Police sympathy raises concern
The interviews revealed that some Ghanaian police officers showed a degree of sympathy for the scammers’ arguments. While officers acknowledged the damage inflicted on victims, they recognised the colonial narrative as a persuasive justification.
Dr Lazarus observed: ‘A striking feature of my interviews was how offenders framed their scams through the lens of history. Many explicitly drew on colonial exploitation, arguing that what they do is a form of digital reparations. This rationalisation allows them to recast fraud as resistance rather than crime.’
Wider regional trend
The rise of organised cyber fraud in West Africa has drawn international concern. Earlier this year, Interpol identified the region as a hub for ‘online scam centres’, some of which operate through coercion. Jobseekers are tricked into employment schemes, forced into debt bondage and detained in compounds where they are compelled to work as digital scammers.
On Friday, Interpol announced the arrest of more than 1,200 suspected scammers in a crackdown across 18 African nations, including Ghana. Investigators from the UK took part in the operation, which uncovered fraud schemes affecting nearly 88,000 people and led to the recovery of £73 million.
Within Ghana itself, training centres known as ‘hustle kingdoms’ reportedly provide instruction to aspiring scammers. Recruits are taught how to manipulate victims in romance scams and other forms of online fraud.
Global ranking highlights threat
The scale of the problem is underscored by Ghana’s global ranking on cyber crime. In 2024, the University of Oxford placed Ghana as the 13th-worst country in the world for cyber criminality. The study highlighted the prevalence of romance fraud, advance-fee scams and phishing operations emanating from the country.
The new research, published in the journal Devious Behaviour under the title Fraud as Legitimate Retribution for Colonial Injustice: Neutralisation Techniques in Interviews with Police and Online Romance Fraud Offenders, argues that the Sakawa Boys’ use of history as justification has made enforcement particularly difficult.
Dr Lazarus warned that unless the underlying narratives of injustice are addressed, Ghana’s cyber crime problem will remain entrenched: ‘This moral framework enables offenders to believe they are engaged in resistance, not crime. That mindset makes deterrence far more complicated.’
