Chief Executive Officer for the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunication, Kenneth Ashigbey
The Chief Executive Officer for the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunication, Kenneth Ashigbey, has entreated the Ghana Education Service (GES) and other stakeholders in the educational sector to turn their attention to Senior High Schools (SHSs) as it is becoming the baking and nurturing ground of fraudsters.
Speaking at the 19th Knowledge Forum Series hosted by the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunications in partnership with Starr FM, Mr. Ashigbey stated that students in the second cycle level do not pay attention to advise on cybercrime because that is the new hotspot.
“I had some engagements and unfortunately a lot of the fraud is not even happening in the Universities. It is actually happening in the SHS’s that is where they are baking them. So they are not even interested when you come and you are talking to them they will not mind you. Because that is where the action is actually perpetuating,” he reiterated during the event held at Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra, Tuesday 9th November 2021.
The cybercrime menace has become a headache to governments across the globe with Ghana not an exception.
The Ghana Immigration Service some few weeks back arrested 27 Nigerian nationals believed to be engaged in cybercrime at Appiedu-Kumasi in the Ashanti Region.
The Immigration Service carried out the arrest through intelligence gathered by the Enforcement Operation Department. Items found during the operation were 27 laptops and other internet accessories.
Speaking to the media in Kumasi, Superintendent Mohammed Manan said the suspects who are between the ages of 16 – 26 years were picked up on Friday at about 12:35 pm and identified themselves as Nigerians.
He disclosed that the suspects are being prepared for repatriation.
Meanwhile, the Telecommunication Chamber boss also called on Ghanaians that as Operators they have various ways of detecting fraudsters when they are reported to their outfit.
He mentioned the Bank of Ghana (BoG), and depending on the nature of the affected persons he can also report it to the National Communication Authority (NCA), Cyber Security Office among others adding that there is a collaboration among these entities.
“The interesting thing is that it is not all the time that once the fraud happens it comes to them, it might take a while before. The system also looks around to see if a particular ID has been used in perpetuating a lot of fraud so that we put them on a watch list. They would have been blocked so you see some of them we have done about 16, 17.
“All of these would be available to our members and our partners that we do this business with to make it difficult for the fraudster. So as a customer those of you listening and hearing what you do is that once you detect that somebody is trying to defraud you it is important to report it, don’t just keep it,” he urged.