THREE PERSONS suspected to be conmen have been arrested by officers from the Vetting and Crime Analysis (VCA) Unit of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters for the various role they played in an attempt to defraud one Emmanuel Kojo Mensah.
The three suspects are Edward Koffie aka Mr. Amoah, 60, electrician, Joseph Mensah aka Asare Bediako, 49, trader and Kwamena Sintim Misah aka Engineer Amoah, 43, farmer.
They were arrested on September 27, 2012 at a hotel in Dzorwulu, Accra, where they had met the complainant to take an amount of $1000, being the cost of a fake oil drilling equipment.
The Director of VCA, Chief Superintendent Denis Abade, explained that the complainant, Kojo Mensah, received a telephone call on September 26, 2012 from one of the three fraudsters, Kwamena Sintim Misah, who introduced himself as Engineer Amoah, a worker of the Jubilee Oil Fields in Takoradi in the Western Region. The supposed engineer went on to say his company was in need of some equipment to seal some parts of the oil fields which were leaking.
The supposed leakage could only be stopped by an equipment called oil pipe sealant. The Jubilee Fields was therefore in dire need of the equipment to correct the anomaly.
Sintim Misah thereafter made a business proposal that if the complainant could supply his company some quantity of the so-called oil pipe sealant, he could make $200 profit on each box, explaining that the retail price per box was $700 but he could get it at a wholesale price of $500 per box from a distributor he (Sintim Misah) would introduce to him.
However, Kojo Mensah was smart to detect that the deal was fake since a relative of his had been defrauded a few months ago through the same modus. He therefore became suspicious and reported the matter to the police upon whose advice he goaded the suspects by feigning interest in the so-called oil business.
He agreed to start with a seed capital of $1000 for samples but the three were ambushed and arrested by the police when they showed up for the money.
The police boss used the opportunity to warn the public against accepting such lucrative business proposals from strangers.
He said there were some unscrupulous persons taking advantage of the oil find in the country to defraud unsuspecting victims, adding that very prominent persons even became victims of such conmen because mostly, they offered mouthwatering benefits.
He said greed and the quest to make quick money were the two instances which mostly led one to become a victim of such fraudulent persons.
The police chief mentioned very low gold prices, power beam controlling pipe, fishing charm diet, supper A1 fishing diet, waganga and moringa seeds, CMC oil cement, black paper (which could be washed to turn to dollars) as few of the things these fraudsters used in cajoling their victims into believing they had found fast-money-making means to get rich quick but they were all lies and fraud.
C/Supt. Abade therefore called on the public, especially foreigners, to verify such businesses with the police before investing their money which they might never get back.
<<Print>>