22 Nigerians arrested for online fraud in Ghana

March 4, 2018 4:46 PM

Among the suspects, there was a Ghanaian taxi driver, believed to have been an accomplice.

According to news reports, 22 Nigerians have been arrested in Ghana over alleged

The suspects were arrested by the Ghanaian police authorities, Citi News reports.

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Instablog9ja reports that, among the suspects, there was a Ghanaian taxi driver, believed to have been an accomplice.

They were rounded up at their hideout at Oyarifa in Accra. The suspects are reportedly being repatriated in the next few days.

According to the police, the repatriation is the right step to take in the face of the situation and the hope is that it will help reduce the crime level in the country.

Internet fraud and Yahoo boys

Circa 2002, a new class of young Nigerians started appearing in our social ecosystem. They were flashy, rich and stylish.

In universities, this new crop of young guys (and babes) quickly displaced club boys at the apex of the social ladder. Their flashy cars lit up the parking spaces of several female hostels. Guys wanted to be their friends. Babes wanted to date them.

14 years after the Internet opened up the world to Nigerian youths, Yahoo Boys (or G-Boys as they are also called these days) are still much visible. Gone are the heady days of the yahoo-yahoo golden era when young men involved in Internet fraud will spend millions of Naira in the clubs, buy G-wagons, Range Rovers and own houses in the most expensive states with reckless abandon.

G-Boys still make a lot of money (and spend a lot of money) but not with so much brazen attitude. America has drug dealers. South Americans have the narco trafficantes. Italians have the mob and the Japanese have the yakuza.

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In Nigeria, we have the Yahoo Boys, the G-Boys, the 'wire wire' crew', thousands of young men and women pulling off various scams on the Internet. On the surface, you call them robbers, thieves who deceive people from their hard-earned money but just like the drug barons in South America, Yahoo Boys are more complex than that.