Gabriel Nyame alias Gabby, 29 and businessman who resides at La Paz in Ghana’s capital, Accra, has been outwitted by the Ghana Police Service while in the process to defraud unsuspected victims on the internet.

According to the police,  Gabriel and like-minded individuals display items on online marketing sites with low prices quotations to lure their victims to pay for something they didn’t bargained for.

As a result, Gabriel was tracked and arrested by the Accra Regional Police Intelligence Directorate, and currently before an Accra Circuit Court on the charge of preparation to commit a crime to namely defrauding by false pretense.

Gabriel has pleaded not guilty to the charges when he made his first appearance before Her honour Kizita Naa Koowa Quarshie on Friday, 30 December, 2022.

Brief EF facts: 

The facts as presented by Chief Inspector Samuel Ahiabor were that the Accra Regional Police Intelligence Directorate had gathered that in recent times, there is an upsurge in the menace of people defrauding unsuspecting people via online market platforms.

Therefore, as part of curbing the menace, the Police Administration took steps to clamp down on the criminals by tracking their mode of operations.

The court was told that the police discovered that the syndicate would post mobile phone brands like iPhones online with lower price quotations. 

And in the process, an unsuspecting victims are lured to meet the syndicate at either Achimota, Mallam Junction, La Paz or Tesano with an original iPhone and a replica of the same phone, which is of a lower grade, popularly called refurbished phone. 

After the victim inspects the original mobile phone and agree on a purchase price, the syndicate wittingly swaps the original mobile phone with the replica mobile phone of lower grade and swindle the victim.

In order nip their operations in bud,  on December 26, 2022, a team from the Accra Regional Intelligence Directorate tracked down and arrested Gabriel who was suspected to be a member of the syndicate who use jiji, online market platform to defraud unsuspecting victims. 

According to the prosecutor, the accused had used a fictitious account name – Gideon Biney – to post an iPhone 11 Pro Max on jiji.com to lure victims for their operations. 

When the police conducted a search in his room, they retrieved of replica mobile phones of iPhone 14 Pro Max and 11 Pro Max.

In the course of investigations, the accused mentioned his accomplices as Red Pen, Chaskana, Wasty, T.I and Botwe who are currently on the run. 

It was on these basis, the accused was charged and arraigned before the Court whilst efforts are underway to  arrest his accomplices.