Tech-savvy teens turn to fraud

IN THE dusty alleys of Nima, a shanty town in the heart of Ghana’s capital, a 17-year-old called Ghost reclines on a faded plastic chair inside a dimly lit internet cafe.

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Outside, barefoot children chase a punctured football. Inside, Ghost’s fingers dance across the keyboard, his eyes locked on WhatsApp as he engineers a phishing scam that could earn him thousands of cedis in just a few hours.

“I made GHC12 000 (R14 000) last month,” Ghost said, his voice low and calculated, describing an online store he set up on Instagram.

“People bought phones and laptops. None of it existed.”

Ghost, a pseudonym, is one of a growing number of Accra’s teenagers turning to cybercrime to survive in a country mired in economic crisis, battling youth unemployment and broken dreams.

From mobile money fraud to invest-

ment scams, a murky digital underworld is sucking in minors, many working from their bedrooms or small kiosks operating in plain sight - anywhere with a stable internet connection.

Nima’s 441 neighbourhood is a tightly packed, working-class community of corrugated iron housing and open drains. Opportunities are scarce but mobile phones are not.