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Internet scammers who use rituals to increase their chances of success at defrauding their victims have been spreading fear in the hearts of Tamale residents. The scammers, commonly referred to in local parlance as �Sakawa boys�, normally operate deep in the night or in the very early hours of the morning. The Sakawa boys reportedly take advantage of the dark hours to kidnap children, mostly girls, in their search for human parts and blood. They are said to sometimes sneak into homes to kidnap their victims. Last week, for instance, an eight-year-old girl in Lamakara, a suburb of Tamale, was secretly whisked into a urinary at 1 o�clock in the morning by three men believed to be Sakawa boys, but she was saved by a group of unarmed young men in the area because of her screams. �We heard a very loud scream; we believed it was a child and the voice was fading. We rushed to the scene and they run away, but we managed to capture one of them,� Yussif A. Hafiz, one of those who rescued the girl, said. According to Yussif, the girl told them the men attempted to draw some liquid from her private part. Yussif said the youth nearly lynched the suspected �spiritual criminal� but later rescinded their decision and handed him over to the police. The Finder also gathered that similar incidents occurred at Lamashegu within the week, where a nine-year-old girl was strangled to death in the dark in her own house after the alleged Sakawa man had put off the main switch connecting electricity to the house. Eyewitnesses said it took the loud screams of the girl to wake her sleeping parents, but it was too late to save her. Some residents in the metropolis have formed vigilante groups to confront those engaged in such acts, but apart from the one suspect arrested last night, there have been no other arrests. The Sakawa boys often try to lure residents of developed countries to part away with huge sums of money by either promising them large returns or by posing to be what they are not and proposing marriage or telling dramatic stories of misery to attract sympathy. What differentiates them from ordinary scammers is the addition of ritual elements to their operations in order to increase their chances of success. It is this that leads them to commit ritual murders. �These are just very young boys; they drive stylish cars and live luxurious lifestyles and misbehave around town,� said Musah Ibrahim, one of the angry residents. Musah noted that the Sakawa boys go about doing very dirty and spiritual things in the dark, but things appear to be getting out of control now. �We would have no option than to confront them ourselves in the night; we are capable of protecting our neighbourhood. This is just too much,� he said.