On our way to the Makola market one beautiful morning while visiting Ghana in April, 2013, my sister saw something that she hadn’t eaten in a long time, so she asked the driver to stop the vehicle, so she can buy some. It was cooked corned mixed with peanuts which is often sold along with dried coconut. At this point, we were on the Atomic/Haatso road towards Accra.
As soon as the car moved out of the traffic to park for my sister to make the purchase, a gentleman quickly ran to the vehicle. I was seated in the front of the vehicle and my two elder sisters were seated at the back.
The guy was nicely dressed, though not in suit, he was in a nice pair of shorts and shirt. He politely greeted us and we all responded together. Then to our amazement, he started the conversation with my eldest sister. He began the conversation as if he knew my sister from way back. In fact, at that moment, we were all at lost.
We knew we hadn’t seen this guy before, and also the fact that my sister doesn’t live in the country made it even ‘weirder’. My sister responded by saying she doesn’t know him. The guy insisted that he knew my sister, and even went on to tell a story about how my sister had seen him previously with a truck that he used to carry building sand for builders.
My sister was in a state of confusion, but to avoid embarrassing the gentleman, she just went on to acknowledge his conversation. Then to her surprise, the guy went on to say that he lost his job two weeks ago from an accident. He said he was involved in a car crash and his vehicle was totally damaged.
He said he was on his way to a friend’s house to go and borrow some money for transportation in order to go to town to go look for a job. And that if my sister wouldn’t mind and could be kind enough to give her some money for transportation and for his family upkeep, that would be great. My sister, out of shock and disbelief took out Ghc 20 and handed it over to this guy.
But as soon as we proceeded on our journey, my sister asked “what just happened?” Apparently, she is more than sure that she has never met this guy before, and we know that is the truth.
We later found out as we told the story to our family and friends that this is a ploy by some individuals around Accra as a means of making ends meet.
They are able to differentiate between the visitors and the locals just by looking at you, and in our case that is just exactly what happened. Let’s just say we were tricked big time. So when you visit Ghana next time, just be on alert and don’t get played by these 419 people.
usually i dont comment on these stuffs. but ony3gbemi for the conclusive part of your wasteful article.
@Richard, hahahahahahahaha
@Richard, I think you are one of the people doing this trick in Ghana
absolutely nonsense… Aint u ashamed u were rather tricked. U new perfectly well u didnt noe de guy but u gave him de money. Who ever wrote dis article should say de sista gave de guy de money out of pity n stop sayn trash abt 419 pple….
@don palio, lol
your pic and ur caption does not suit the story.
Hmmmm, I see we got some 419 peeple on this site. Did you ever stop to think these 419 people sometimes use juju before talking to their victim? So what if that was the case here. 419ers commenting on here, I guess this article is blowing up your cover and that is why all the insults.
@Nana, on my side i aint a 419 or fraudster. Buh u should no if u believe in juju it happens… Meanwhile u should ask the author whether where he/she is from arent dere 419 n fraudsters case more serious dan wat we see ova here.. Must dey always look down on us jus becoz dey in foriegn lands… Massa im a postive man n detest negativity… We aa fed up wiv diz stupid attitude of ds borgas(slaves) in who fink dey berra dan us here.
@don palio, I think the author is from Ghana. How do you know she is not from Ghana? According to the article, they were approached by a gentleman when they stopped. What language do you think they spoke? And besides, she also mentioned when they went to tell friends and family later after it happened, they were told they had been duped. So from all that indication, I am pretty sure the person is from Ghana. You know 419 doesn’t only happen to foreigners. It happens to everyone, and it could be you next lol.
@Nana, i never said the author is not ghanaian… What i meant was that when they travel outside for some small exposure deir attitude towards deir fellow ghanaians bak in ghana changes as if they dont experience dos cases in the foriegn lands dey aa… Das y i used (borga). Massa read the first sentence of the article. What im saying is the author behaved as thoose bak home aa worse off. Jus look @ the last sentence of the article. Wat in ur mind is ds author portrayn here as if 419/fraud/conmen dont exist @ deir respective villages in abroad they aa residn nw.