Facing a broken economy, Ghana's tech-sawy teens turn to fraud

FROM mobile money fraud to investment scams, a murky digital underworld is sucking in minors, many working from their bedrooms or small kiosks operating in plain sight

- AFP

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.

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 ($770) last month," Ghost told AFP, 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 he gave AFP, is one of a growing number of Accra's teenagers turning to cybercrime to survive in a country mired in economic crisis, battling both youth unemployment and broken dreams.