Combating Cybercrime in Ghana:  The 2024 Election in Perspective

Ghana, as developing country, is getting interconnected than ever before. However, for all the advantages that social media, online transactions and the entire digital space has brought us, it has significantly increased online theft, fraud and internet extortion.

Cyber attackers, best known as scammers use every little opportunity to obtain monies from people. The 2024 election will not be an exception.

As we approach the 2024 elections, many fraudsters may engage in several cybercrimes to obtain monies from victims. This article shall address the various methodologies scammers may engage in and as well as pragmatic solutions to cybercrime.

Brand Impersonation

Scammers may impersonate brands of major political parties offering flashy opportunities in exchange of money. Some scammers may even communicate their deceptive information on similar letterheads of political organizations and businesses. Netizens should not fall prey to these tricks. Kindly confirm with appropriate offices before advancing to any opportunity you spot.

Personal online impersonation

During national elections, scammers may impersonate as leaders and executives of political parties by creating parody accounts on social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram just to mention a few. They may private-chat individuals demanding money in exchange for juicy promises.

WhatsApp Account Takeover

Netizens are advised to activate the two-factor authentication system of WhatsApp to prevent scammers from taking over your WhatsApp account. Fraudsters may use your account to solicit for money from people in your contact list whilst you are in the unknown. As much as possible, a strange request from relatives or friends on WhatsApp should be confirmed by a phone call.

The Offence of Engaging in Fraud

The above actions of fraudsters amount to defrauding by false pretense contrary to Section 131 of the Criminal and Other Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) attracting a term of imprisonment of not more than 25 years. See Section 296(5) of the Criminal Procedure Act, 1960 (Act 30).

The punishment for these cybercrimes is heftier for culprits who are employed in the public service of Ghana. A person who is a public officer and has been sentenced to a term of imprisonment of three years or more forfeits his employment. See Section 298(1) of Criminal Procedure Act, 1960 (Act 30).

Tackling the Menace

The Ghana Police Service as a legal personality must petition social media service providers such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. to scrutinize all accounts bearing political party leaders. This scrutiny should be aimed at verifying the actual accounts of political figures and blocking all other fake accounts.

A similar exercise was taken in Thailand. Thailand threatened to sue Facebook claiming a shut down of the meta-app nationwide over scammers allegedly exploiting the social networking site to cheat local users out of tens of millions of dollars a year. (See https://www.voanews.com/a/thailand-threatens-facebook-shutdown-over-scam-ads/7242324.html).

The government should establish avenues to educate and train cyber security experts. The trainees should not be necessarily security personnels but people who are computer experts from the various departments of Computer Science in the Ghanaian Universities.

In the United States of America, The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) which has its headquarters in Gaithersburg, Maryland, was established to train technological experts in diverse areas including cyber security. NIST develops cybersecurity standards, guidelines, best practices, and other resources to meet the needs of U.S. industry, federal agencies and the broader public.

As earlier on stated, the Ghanaian government should establish similar institutions or incorporate practical cyber security training courses in our traditional universities. People who engage in these courses should not be at the risk of being unemployed after completion, hence it should be made mandatory for large organizations that are prone to cybercrimes to employ cyber experts with good working conditions and remunerations.

Conclusion

As individuals, we owe ourselves a duty not to fall prey to scammers. We must be vigilant of the ways of scammers.

In the event the unfortunate happens, “The Cyber Security Authority of Ghana (CSA) has a 24-hour Cybersecurity/Cybercrime Incident Reporting Points of Contact (PoC) for reporting cybercrimes and for seeking clarification and guidance on online links and transactions; Email – [email protected]” Retrieved from the CSA Official Site.

By: Dapuri M. Cephas