Fraud decreases but perpetrators get more sophisticated – CID report

Though statistics available at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service showed decrease in fraud cases nationwide between January 2009 and September 2011, the data indicated that perpetrators had become more sophisticated in their operations.

Notable among the fraud perpetrated for the period under review included business scam, gold fraud, cyber crime, black money, lottery scam, visa fraud, “romance fraud,” family and stool lands fraud and electronic-mail identity theft.

Deputy Commissioner Of  Police (DCOP) Prosper Kwame Agblor, who is also the Director-General of the CID,  made this known at a press briefing in Accra on Tuesday.

He said 14,132 fraud cases which were reported within the first three quarters of 2009, reduced to 13,865 cases within the same period in 2010.

Mr Agblor said: “The figure further reduced from 13,865 in 2010 to 13,570 cases within the same period in 2011 showing a decrease in 295 cases.”

Presenting the regional distribution of reported crime, the statistics indicated that Greater Accra Region recorded the highest followed by Ashanti,Western Region,  then the Tema Municipality.

The Upper East followed by Upper West Region recorded the lowest.

Mr Agblor said 279 persons connected with various fraud cases had been arrested over the period under review.

He called on the public to seek expert advice or consult the Police for verification when individuals or groups of people contacted them with business proposals they were unsure of.

“E-mail users should avoid opening messages they suspect to be spam. They should also refrain from providing their bio-data to websites they are not conversant with.”

Mr Agblor appealed to the public to volunteer credible information that could lead to the arrest and prosecution of fraudsters to the Police.

Source: GNA