CYBERCRIMES IN GHANA SEEMS TO GET OUT OF CONTROL

In a recent writing, I mentioned about the rise of cybercrimes in Ghana. I mentioned about Ghana Vice-President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur who has urged ISPs to put in place effective measures to combat internet fraud, amid rapidly increasingly cybercrime. Full Detail on this can be read "HERE".

Barely two weeks after Ghana Vice-President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur called on young people not to get involved in illegal internet activities, police arrested a 26-year-old undergraduate student for allegedly defrauding many people through a bogus online organisation that 'provided' foreign scholarships to Ghanaian students.

Nine days later, police caught six alleged cybercriminals from Nigeria for possessing letterheads of the Presidency, Interior Ministry, High Court and other state institutions, which they reportedly used to defraud people.

Towards the end of June,a group of suspected cybercriminals in the old suburb of Adabraka in the capital Accra, where they operate from a rundown building spoke with one of the online media.

While two of these young men - all unemployed graduates - said they owned an online accommodation agency, one said he was a travel agent who helped people to get foreign visas. The fourth also unknowingly bared his soul to one of the online media, saying he was an oil and gold broker.

"We do everything online and only deal with credit card holders, strictly no cash," IT graduate Kwame said. "And so far, our business is booming and we are living a good life, meaning no more hunger and lacking pocket money."

Group leader Kwame, who studied IT for three years, said he and his friends got involved in this illegal business because of poverty and unemployment.

Technology analyst John-Osei Seidu said that cybercrime in Ghana was out of control as the government seemed to have run out of ideas as to how best to tackle it.

It is believed that the Ghanaian government was planning to introduce a National Cyber Security Strategy to effectively fight the country's rising cybercrime.

However, Seidu blamed the government for talking too much, but not committing more funds to tackle cybercrime, including providing adequate logistics to the police to effectively handle this kind of crime.

Cybercrime costs the global economy about US$445 billion every year, according to a 2014 report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Details of this report in both Swahili and English can be read "HERE"