By Laudia Sawer,GNA
Tema, Aug 30, GNA – The Ghana Ports and
Harbours Authority (GPHA) says some unscrupulous persons were using its name to
defraud prospective car buyers.
Mrs Esther Gyebi-Donkor, General Manager,
Marketing and Corporate Affairs of GPHA, stated that such persons create fake
websites in the name of the company which they use to swindle people.
Mrs Gyebi-Donkor said “these people will
snapshot our website and manage to add that kind of information creating a fake
website in GPHA’s name”.
She further explained that they then linked
on-line marketing portals to the fake website and indicate that “if you need a
car you should go to that website”.
She therefore cautioned the public against
dealing with such persons, stressing that “if anybody tells you that GPHA is
selling cars, don’t waste your time to make any further enquiries. It should
just tell you that somebody is trying to dupe you”.
According to her, GPHA does not engage in
auctioning and selling of cars since it was only the Customs Division of the
Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) which was mandated to auction vehicles at the
port.
Narrating one of such defrauding activities,
she noted that a medical doctor who works with a reputable hospital in Accra
was duped GH¢ 21,000 by the fraudsters after promising to get him a car from
the Tema Port.
She indicated that according to the victim, he
saw a car he was interested in being advertised on Tonanton and contacted the
agent who then sent him pictures of cars available for sale.
Mrs Gyebi-Donkor added that the victim then
received a call from a man purporting to be the Director-General of GPHA
confirming he had received his application to buy the said car and was expected
to pay GH¢ 3,000 in addition to some monies paid already to complete the
transaction.
The victim, who also received a text message
supposedly coming from Customs confirming his transaction with them, was called
by one Elvis Boakye assuring him of receiving the car on May 10, 2018.
In all, he paid an amount of GH¢ 21,000 to the
swindlers.
GNA