A Dubai-based Ghanaian lady has suffered the loss of both her dignity and finances.
The young lady, a house help in the Gulf state known as Sahadat has been swindled by a fake US Marine Engineer whom she met on social media after sharing her nudes with him during a video call.
She is now in tatters as the fake US soldier has threatened to publicize her nudes if she dared pursue him for her money.
According to Sadat, it all began when she became friends with the supposed US Engineer on Facebook after she accepted his friend request.
The beleaguered lady told crimecheckghana.org that after their initial conversation, the US marine soldier expressed interest in marrying her, touting her humility.
“He told me any lady he met deceived him and took his money and never wanted him so he was amazed about my humility,” she said.
Sahadat said she reposed confidence and trust in his newfound love after interacting for over a year hoping to be married soon.
Her trust in the man soared when he sent her mother Ghc 500 during Ramadan and also introduced her to some of his supposed relatives.
“He made me speak to a woman he claimed was his mother. He even shared a picture of his children and his former wife with me. I believed him,” she expressed dismay.
But that did not happen as her ‘Facebook’ boyfriend had a different intention.
How she was frauded
Sahadatu said after a while, the US soldier informed her he wanted to send items for their marriage ceremony to Ghana by cargo.
Sahadatu said later, her US boyfriend told her that he barely goes home because he is always on the sea and was short of money on his credit card after buying the items.
She recalled her boyfriend told her he was going to keep some cash in the container loaded with the goods to enable her do some renovations in his house for him and keep the rest as a refund for clearing the goods from the port.
This she said was all lies and just a ploy to trust him.
Sadat said due to the promise of marriage her parents forced her to return to Ghana for the ceremony.
While she was in Ghana, precisely Kumasi, she had a call that the container had arrived at the port.
“I informed my husband of the development after some receipts were sent to me by some persons claiming to be port officials. He said he could not send me money so I should clear off the goods from the port and then he comes for a break, he would refund it which I agreed to,” she told crimecheckghana.org.
Sahadat said she sent the supposed clearing agent Ghc 15,000 to clear the goods and was told that a driver was bringing the goods to her.
She said she was given a phone number, which they claimed was the driver’s phone number.
While on his way, Sahadat said she regularly called the supposed driver to find out where he had reached. During one of the calls, the driver told her he had been arrested by immigration officers who were threatening to impound the container and take her to court which was going to cost about Ghc 400,000.
“I informed my husband about it and he asked me again to pay for it when the goods arrive, the money in the container would be mine,” she recollected.
Sahadat said she had to borrow from friends and relatives to send it to the supposed driver to bribe the immigration officers with an amount of Ghc 15,000.
“After sending him the money, the driver kept giving me excuses. He said he constantly got heckled by police officers which he said he was fed up with so I should meet him at Asewase for the items,”
Sahadat said when she got to the location, the driver was not there and when he called to find out where he was, he told her the truck developed mechanical faults so he was still on his way.
She said she kept waiting but the driver never showed up and when she wanted to inform her supposed husband-to-be, she got the shock of her life after realizing he had blocked her.
She said she immediately contacted the woman he claimed was her mother who then disclosed that she was only a bread seller and never knew her ‘husband-to-be’ as he only brought her the phone to speak to her.
Sahadat said when she later got through to the fake US Marine Engineer, he revealed his true identity as Abubakar, a prison inmate at the Nsawam Medium Security Prison, and threatened her with sharing her nudes with the world if she dared go after him.
Her friends who caannot wait for her marriage have been calling to ask her when it is coming off and she is unable to break the ‘news’ to them because she cannot stand the embarrasment.
Sahadat, who wants to save her dignity, has run to Crime Check Foundation (CCF) to help her.
Rudolph Nandi
