Uncover - S25 E3: Meet The Boys | "Love, Janessa"

Episode Date: April 5, 2024

Tracking down scammers – how and why do they do it? One tells host Hannah Ajala: “I always feel bad”. Researchers estimate half of global romance scams originate in West Africa. In Ghana, there are the Sakawa Boys. The conning process can involve staying up late, chatting on the phone… building trust and deepening the connection — a bit like a real relationship. It takes time to fall “in love”.To hear all episodes of Love, Janessa now, visit here.Please note, this series contains adult themes and strong language. For transcripts of this series, please visit here.

This is a CBC Podcast. A BBC World Service and CBC Podcast production. Before we start, please note this series contains adult themes and strong language. Whenever I'm in Ghana, I always carry a little battery-powered hand fan with me. Probably looks a little diva, but it's the best defense against the heat. Also, fanning yourself gives you something to do when you're nervous. Like I am, sitting here on the patio of a cafe in Accra, waiting. Every car that goes by, I think, is that him?

The guy I'm waiting for has rescheduled twice already. First, he didn't want to meet indoors, so he had to find exactly the right outdoor location. Then the rain set in and he cancelled again. Now I'm nervous that he won't show up at all. I'm also a bit nervous that he will. The guy I'm waiting for is a supporting player in one of many criminal schemes,

conning people around the world. He's a romance scammer, someone who grooms his victims by using other people's images. Images like Janessa's. From CBC Podcasts and the BBC World Service, my name is Hannah Ajala and this is Love, Janessa. And this is Love, Janessa. The story of my wild quest to find the woman whose face and body is the bait used in catfishing schemes around the world.

Episode 3, Meet the Boys. Fine, right? Yes, and I don't know if I have a small change. OK, yeah, there you go. Ten. Sir, would you like some plantain chips? Oh, let me give you a take. You can never say no to plantain chips. It's my first morning in Accra, and I have a serious craving for plantain chips. The guy who is helping me get my fix at a roadside stand is actually my fixer, Ludwig. We're meeting for the first time.

What a lovely start. Hello, Ludwig. So Ludwig, I feel like by the end of this week we're going to be like besties. Yeah, we're starting to be besties already. Yes, a lovely great introduction ludwig is this super energetic towering guy in a tracksuit he works as an assistant director on films but this week he's going to help me set up interviews and navigate the city he calls home ludwig is a serious Ghana booster and I get it Ghana is beautiful it's got great beaches and waterfalls it's become a very hot Instagram snap for tourists

Naomi Campbell and Idris Elba have both given Ghana big love on their feeds Ludwig what do you love so much about just being in Ghana? What do you love so much about just being in Ghana? Well, I mean, the economic situation is getting tougher each day. But, I mean, waking up and we have the life I've always wanted to have. I always want to be in Ghana. to have, I always want to be in Ghana. I look around the world and all the issues a lot of people face at my age and I feel Ghana is that beautiful place I always want to be.

I always say I wouldn't choose anywhere apart from Ghana. But Ghana doesn't have such positive associations for everyone. Because I've been doing a lot of research in it and I've been googling catfishing scams. That's Simon de Brassel from episode one, the British journalist who thought he'd track the real Janessa Brazil to a hotel in Toronto. But he was wrong.

I knew that it's basically a huge international business which originates in West Africa, or was at the epicenter is West Africa. I didn't really have any doubt that it was likely that it was originating from Nigeria or Ghana. While he was digging into the mystery, Simon communicated with a lot of scammers who were using Janessa's name and image. The one he spoke to most would often mention Ghana in her texts.

This is Janessa, your wife, here in Ghana, due to my terrible situation on my surgery operation. She offered many twisty explanations for why he should send money to her in Ghana, rather than, say, the United States, where she allegedly lived. Roberto Marini, from last episode, had a similar experience. Hannah Alex, the person he was in love with, who also used Janessa's image, and who Roberto came to believe was the real Janessa Brazil, initially said she lived in the US.

But Ghana kept coming up, in very confusing ways. She was actually living in Ghana because the father that was an ex-military got to be injured and he had to stay there. So this was the main initial story. I don't know seriously if it's right or wrong, if it's true or false, but let's give it the benefit of the doubt, you know. We don't know if any of the people impersonating Janessa Brazil are in Ghana. But researchers estimate that 50% of romance scams originate in West Africa. In Ghana, those scammers are known as Sakawa boys. And whilst I'm here, I'm determined to meet at least one of them.

I'm here, I'm determined to meet at least one of them. What are the most obvious signs when you look at someone and know that's a Sakawa boy? It is very easy for the community members. Their hairstyle is one of them. Bushy hair, the way they spend money, they don't care. This is Abdul Razak Kuyini Alhassan. He was born and raised in Ghana. Now he's an associate professor at the University of Southeastern Norway. And one of his specialties is Sakawa culture,

an area of research that didn't exist 20 years ago. He got interested in the subject the same way Simon did, via his own inbox. And then I started getting emails from unknown people requesting money, asking for help from me. You know, they will give you a story that you keep thinking about this story. What can I do about this?

The more I got these messages from people, then I tried to have contact with them. Then I got to know, oh, some of them are really deceiving people. I didn't know that these people were Sakawa. Sakawa means putting inside, in Hausa, a language spoken in western Central Africa. But it's also become shorthand for criminals who defraud people online, usually foreigners. Women practice Sakawa too, but pretty much everyone refers to Ghana's online scammers as Sakawa boys. The young men who do it stand out with the brands they're wearing,

expensive cars, the number of bottles they pop in a club. And Sakawa is part of a larger cultural phenomenon. There are popular movies about these sorts of fraudsters, and even a genre of music called scam rap. This song by Nab is called Scam. S-C-A-M. Which stands for Simple Cool Automatic Money. In the video, there are a lot of shots of guys panning fistfuls of cash. Sakawa boys like to wave their money around too. But this isn't just about guys fanning cash, which is typical

hip-hop posturing. Ghana is a deeply religious country, mostly Christian and Muslim. But Sakawa boys operate outside these boundaries. I would say that the difference between a Sakawa boy and cyber criminal would be that the Sakawa boy involves himself into some kind of spiritual activity. So this spiritual activity has to do with seeking for help to be able to get their clients to give them what they want. When he says spiritual activity, Abdul means voodoo, a religion with a long and complicated history here in Ghana. According to him, some Sakawa boys pay voodoo priests to perform rituals to ensure their scams are working. Spells and ceremonies to make their targets fall in love with them.

Among the Sakawa boys, there are some who will tell you that, OK, I am not involved in juju, but this other guy is involved in juju. Juju means objects like amulets and charms that are infused with magical powers. Then you want to know, does it really work when they involve juju into the sakawa business? Then they tell you, yes, it works. It works.

But what's important to understand is that to a lot of West Africans, this voodoo connection is what sets Sakawa boys apart from other types of criminals. These guys aren't regular hustlers. They're playing with spiritual forces that are profoundly troubling to many Ghanaians. I was kind of confused when I heard about the Sakawa Boys, because this whole sinister idea didn't seem to line up with a Ghana I knew.

As a kid, I spent my summers in Nigeria with my grandparents, and in my life, I visited 15 countries in Africa. Ghana is by far the most chill. Like if you pay someone in a market with an app, no one will ask to look at your phone to make sure the payment's gone through. They'll just say, oh, it's okay, it's okay, I trust you, and wave you off. That would not fly in Nigeria from my experience. Ghana's like the quiet, relaxed neighbour to Nigeria. Nigeria's having a house party.

Ghana's swinging in the hammock. That chill is at odds with the darkness in Ghana's past. The British weren't the first Europeans to lay claim to Ghana, but they were the ones who called it the Gold Coast Colony. First they took the gold, then they took the people. 400 years ago, the west coast of Africa was a principal source of enslaved people for the New World. But Ghana was one of the first African nations to gain independence from colonialism too, breaking free of British rule in 1957.

Ghana, your beloved country, is free forever. To this day, it's a proud democracy. It had been economically healthy too, until the recent worldwide financial downturn. But on a global scale, Ghana is still fairly poor. Ghana also has a very high youth unemployment rate, and it's gotten worse in the past few years you know, they used to teach their children how to farm now we say education for everybody

they finish their education they come home they find no jobs if you say that, okay, do not involve in Sakawa what else? What is the better alternative do you have for them? So you've got a group of educated young people who need money but can't find work. That's one part of the equation.

But there may be another reason there's so much cybercrime in Ghana. And it's not pretty. To describe what I'm looking at is literally an ocean of waste. I'm not exaggerating. It is an ocean of waste. Ludwig has brought me to Agbogboloshi, one of the world's biggest dump sites for electronic waste. There's a tractor vehicle moving through. There's thick, black bits of liquid that's been streamed out. I'm just really thankful for the two thick face masks that I'm wearing right now. We're here because this dump might be part of why so much cybercrime is happening in Ghana. two thick face masks that I'm wearing right now.

We're here because this dump might be part of why so much cybercrime is happening in Ghana. Massive shipping containers of old and discarded electronics arrive at the ports, not far from here. Many from Western Europe and the US. There are theories that this garbage is the source of personal information that some scammers use to trap their victims. The fumes taste toxic, even through the mask. And in the distance, people are ankle, even knee deep in the waste, looking for pieces to sell.

Like, there's so many things we see here right in front of me, as well as the call to prayer in the background There's a woman in front of me with a baby Sorry, she's closer to the wayside than I am And I feel affected. I Can't help but worry about the health dangers and the health risks The dump is a universe unto itself All around it are homes, markets, stalls, people buying fresh fruit There's a weird symmetry to Agbogboloshi

The garbage comes in, people pick it over And in the markets nearby, you can buy all the bits and pieces to build computers When it's time to get rid of that computer, it gets trashed here too. In 2009, a hard drive containing confidential information about a $22 million deal between the US government and defence contractors was discovered on the black market. It had been purchased, used, in an Akra suburb. The FBI traced the drive to Agbogboloshi,

where it had ended up after being thrown out. Of course, today, everything's in the cloud. So the stolen images that scammers use don't have to come from an abandoned hard drive. In his article, Simon reported that Janessa herself was likely the victim of a hack. He believed she had her personal photos stolen and that's part of why her image is so easily replicated. Whether or not that's true, and I hope to ask her when I find her, what we do know is that Ghana is awash in refurbished laptops and phones.

Ludwig and I head into a store that sells used computer parts. It's like the garage of a tech hoarder. Piles of cables, keyboards, drives. To protect his identity, I'll call him Muhammad. Assalamu alaikum. Assalamu alaikum, madam. Thank you very much. So how long have you been working with computers? Muhammad doesn't speak much English, so Ludwig translates.

I want to know if Sakawa boys come here to get parts to build their computers. So according to him, he's so sure that the fraud boys, I mean the Sakawa boys come to buy. But they cannot openly tell him that, oh, I'm going to use it for this. They wouldn't say that. But then the appearance tells that, OK, this is this kind of person. The appearance, the hair, the car, the flash. At these stores, parts go cheap. So like you said, the hard drives, depending on the size of the space,

you can get as low as 60 Ghana cities and 100 cities. That's about US$10 for a used hard drive. We walk another 10 minutes and head into another store. This one is much fancier, less DIY. You'd never know the brand-name computers on display were used. A sales assistant shows us around the store. I'll call him Matthew. There's so many crisp-looking laptops, even nicer than my own.

And I guess if a Sakawa boy is doing quite well, he's making money, he could then come here for his upgrade computer. Yeah, they do come here for an upgrade of a computer, especially when the machine is slow. So he comes in, buys a machine which is faster for him. And when they come in here to buy it, do they pay in cash or what? Yeah, they do pay in cash.

This store also repairs computers. And that's when Matthew and his fellow workers see Sakawa up close. People bring their machines, you work on it, immediately you open it. The files on the machine will give you an information that this is what they use the machine for what kind of files and things do you see there are a lot of especially those who do fraudulent they come they have different types of ladies on it especially when you open and use these guys have different type of ladies four five six different types that you know this guy this is his business they are models they are models naked nude pictures how does it make you feel knowing

that there's a community there's a growing community of men boys in this ghana that are using these same computers that you have here in your shop, basically adding to this money-making lifestyle that they've created for themselves. Even if you feel embarrassed, you know Africa is difficult. You know how Africa is very difficult. Making money in Africa is not so easy. So you don't really complain. You just know this guy walks around with his car and he's happy. So everybody doesn't really care about how people make their money really in Africa.

I do though. I care how people make their money and I want to meet a Sakawa boy to ask him about it. The problem is Ludwig hasn't had a lot of luck finding one. For every interview he books, there's a cancellation. And then someone did emerge. It's one of those a guy who knows a guy who knows a guy situations. He texted Ludwig that he was willing to talk to me. And then he cancelled twice. If I'm honest, maybe I was a little relieved. The more I learn about Sakawa, the more on edge I feel about sitting down with a Sakawa boy. And that's what's in my head as I sit in that roadside cafe,

nervously holding my fan. I'm just about to give up. But then... Oh, I actually think I see him pulling up. Oh, yeah, that's him. I see him. Uncover from CBC Podcasts brings you award-winning investigations year-round. But if you want to listen ahead, all episodes of Love, Janessa

from CBC and the BBC World Service are available right now. Binge listen to the entire series by searching Love, Janessa. Uncover the best in true crime. I'm Kathleen Goltar and I'm the host of a new podcast, Crime Story. Every week we bring you a different crime told by the storyteller who knows it best. You got one witness who can't be found. You got another witness who's murdered. We couldn't sugarcoat the story.

I was getting calls from Cosby's attorney threatening to sue every day. Every crime in one way or another is a reflection of who we are as a people, as a city, as a country. Find us wherever you get your podcasts. your podcasts. He's wearing a yellow t-shirt. He's not alone. He's not driving. It's like a little car, quite discreet, nothing too flashy. Oh gosh, okay. I'm in the cafe Under a palm tree

A car pulls up Three men are inside They're all wearing covered face masks So I can't see them too clearly Let me respectfully greet I thought that they'd be coming out of the car But I guess not But I'm still a distance away

I don't even think they can see me. One moment. Looks like our guy rolls with the crew. I'm across the patio, but I can hear them talking to Ludwig in tree, one of the dialects spoken in Ghana, before they switch to English. Two of them get back in the car. For the whole interview, I'm in their line of sight.

Our guy walks over to my table very slowly. Like, you can wait for me a minute. Then he extends his hand. He goes by the name Ofa. He's in his mid-thirties, wearing a yellow top and trainers. He has little plaits poking out of his ball cap and a bit of a belly. OK, Ofa, could you count from one to ten, please? Yeah, thank you.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Lovely. And I'm going to be talking at this level from here. Yeah, sounds good. Then he takes his mask off. How would you describe that journey from when you started? When I started. Quick note, it's really loud where we're talking and Offa is a soft talker, so I'll paraphrase from time to time. I met a friend, okay, so I told him I need a work, so he said that he can get me a job.

Okay, so I went to his house and I saw a lot of laptops and phones. He gave me one phone. He opened a Facebook account for me. I chose a different picture, not my picture, but I chose a different picture to open the Facebook account. So in this house, filled with phones and laptops, Ofa sets up a fake Facebook profile. And he's all set.

I got likes and I got friends, you know. So one also, she likes me. So I also show interest. Then I started from there. And it would be good to know how you choose the individuals who you think you can start a relationship with. How do you do that? It takes time.

It's not easy. Because the person that you are talking to, he doesn't know you. So for the person to trust you, it's very difficult. So when you get the client, you have to show trust. And also the person has to show trust to you. You have to be online, talking to the person, make sure that you are in for the person. So you have to let the person know that you are there for him or her. So you have to build that relationship for the person to trust you before you can get something

from the person. So it's a process. This early stage of what Ofa calls the process looks almost like any relationship. Staying up late, chatting on the phone, building trust and deepening the connection. It takes time to fall in love. Can you talk me through a time when you did that and how it went? So there was one lady, she's a little bit old, like I said, 50s. She also sent me a friend request and I accepted it.

So you're speaking to this older woman and who are you? Are you a young Ghanaian man? I'm not a young Ghanaian man because I do the U.S. in the States. When he's chatting on Facebook to this woman in her 50s, he's not a young man in Ghana. He's an American who has to travel a lot for work. Who actually decides the images that are used for these Sakawa scams? Can you just easily just pick your own and you don't need anyone to approve it? You alone cannot do the business. So you have to ask maybe from team A, team B. If team A

doesn't have it, team B might have it. So that's how it works. be my target. So that's how it works. So these Takawa boys work in teams, sharing images and information. It reminds me of something Anshul Regge, the professor who studies online romance scams, told me. That these guys work from playbooks, and they have different roles, like in any company. Some recruits clients, others collect funds or provide IT support creating fake IDs and documents. I asked Ofa how long it took to ask his so-called client for money. Okay let's say about four months. I remember the first money I took from her, I told her I've travelled and I don't have my card,

so if she can send me money, and she did. So after four months of chatting, he tells her he's on one of his many trips and he's lost his credit card. He says the woman sends him a money transfer. And just thinking about your relationship, was it mostly through typing? Were there ever any phone calls? Most of the times, we are tested. OK.

Because I don't want her to see my face. So there was never any video calls? There was. But I told her my phone was broken, so the screen isn't working. I have to find some story for her so that she will believe it. Always I have a story, always I have a story. He tells her his phone is broken, and that's why she can't see his face. Offa must be a pretty good storyteller, because she believed him. He says she even sent him a new phone. But he had a way of avoiding a video call

with his upgrade too. Sometimes when she calls too, it's in the dark. So you know, you can't see my face, but I can just do the phone like this. Ofar stretches his arms and holds the phone far away to demonstrate. Can you see me? Can you see me? So even though Ofar was pretending to be American, this woman must have sent a phone to Ghana. It's perplexing, like so much of the romance scam storytelling. It makes me think of Simon's Janessa.

How she turned herself in knots to explain how and why she was in Ghana. Or why she needed money sent to Nigeria. Or how she went to Toronto in the middle of winter to escape a scandal in the US. It almost seems like the more unbelievable the stories get, the more willing the victims are to believe them. And how long did that relationship last? Oh, almost a year.

And why did the relationship end? One day she suspected that I'm fraudulent. Oh, almost a year. Almost a year. And why did the relationship end? One day she suspected that I'm a frauding man. She suspected he was frauding her. Because I remember I asked her some amount of money and she told me she's not having it. So I was pushing her to get the money for me. So she suspected us. She suspected us.

Which countries would you say you target the most? I don't really have a choice but US, Canada, and let's say Australia. And who do you usually contact? Is it just women, men, both? Both. Both. Because I can also be like a woman. He can be like a woman, or at least sound like one.

So we have a phone that we can change the voice. Maybe if you are my friend and you are a woman, I can talk to you to talk to someone for me. Then I will write it for you, I will tell you what to do for me. Then we do that. So if the scam has progressed long enough, the target might need to hear the voice of the woman he's falling for.

Afar writes a script and pulls in a female friend to make the call. Has anyone ever asked for information from you to confirm your identity, like ID or videos or something? So if she asks something like that, I can call someone, OK, create something this for me.

We have software. People also have software. So Ofa says he has a guy who can fake almost any kind of document using software. I remember Simon being persuaded he was communicating with the real Janessa because of a picture of a driver's license he'd been sent. The technology is sophisticated and evolving fast. Ofa has heard about Sakawa boys who can alter still photos to make them look like videos. Day in, day out, people are doing more things.

So I just have to do anything for her to know that I'm real. So any information she wants, I can get it. At any given moment, Ofa says he has dozens of victims on the go. I can't help but think about the multitasking that happens, especially as a Sakawa boy. Many who have multiple relationships at the same time. How do you maintain that? It's noisy, but, you know, you know, it's like dating someone. Marrying two, four wives. To keep track of the multiple tails he's spinning,

Ofa writes them all down. And you have to be smart. You have to remember everything that you told him. Ofa writes them all down. So when he's in character, Ofa never wants to be the bad lover who misses a birthday. But because he says he's scamming so many people at once, he needs a spreadsheet to keep track of all the details. When he's talking about the logistics, I'm thinking, oh, scamming is really just a job,

one with a lot of boring admin work, and the payoff is hardly immediate. I started without getting anything. So after a year now, a year, then I started getting just once more money. It's not easy for you to just get the money from them straight because you have to build a trust. It took a year before he started earning. Another not so great thing about this job, it requires investment up front. You have to send some cash to them.

You can't even buy online food for them. Pizza, you know, flowers. I mean, just surprise them with those things. So, let's talk money. What's the largest amount you've received from someone? Let's talk money. What's the largest amount you've received from someone? See, I have received 10,000 before and 50,000 also. That's 50,000 US dollars.

So, 50,000 being the largest? And how did that come about? Was that just in one go or was it bits? Different people. Because I collected from here, I collected from here and I got that. Do you ever sometimes feel bad that you're scamming people including people who really like you? Very very bad. You feel bad definitely you know it's because of work and because of money. If you have a family you have to I take off one or two things. So I always feel bad for that. I always feel bad. I'm surprised by his answer, but he seems sincere. Looks down, his face kind of falling, like he's ashamed.

But then this other part of me is like, oh, Hannah, maybe he's scamming you. Are you a family man yourself? I am. Yeah. I can tell. You have a wedding band on. Yeah.

Happily married. Thank you. You're a dad of two or three. No. No? Yet to come but I have siblings. I have siblings that I'm the one taking care of them. Okay, I see. So let's say 20 years from now,

would you still be happy to be doing what you're doing? Actually, I have plans to stop. I have plans to stop because as time also goes on, if I believe in a karma and what goes around comes around, so maybe my children also might be following the same thing. Even if not my children, my relatives. So it's not something that I'm willing to do. And do any of your friends or family know what you do?

Okay, my friends, some, not all of them. But my family doesn't know. Does your family know what you do? OK, my friends, some, not all of them. But my family doesn't know. Are there other jobs that you're doing as well as this? Yeah. He lists four different jobs. He's clearly an aspiring entrepreneur. You cannot be doing only one work and survive.

You have to be in all angles. Just to make money is not easy. Ofa only agreed to a half hour, and we're just winding up. I notice one of the men has stepped out of the car like he's ready to go. I have one last question. I hand Ofa my phone. So this is a lady called Janessa, and I just want you to tell me if you've ever seen this woman before.

Janessa. He swiped one Janessa pic after another. Those familiar dark eyes. That bikini. The reason why I ask you that is because this woman is pretty famous for having her images being shared thousands of times. So, Afok, would you use an image like Janessa's? Yeah, of course. If I get pictures, like, you know, it doesn't have to be one picture. It has to be multiple pictures. It doesn't have to be one picture, it has to be multiple pictures. Pictures that she has been to a gym, pictures that she has been to a pool,

pictures that, I mean, cooking, you know, all that. So I can use it. Oh yeah, of course, because she is pretty. I can do a lot. With her picture, I can do a lot. Ofa has never used Janessa's image in a scan before, but to him it's no mystery why her photos are so popular. Ofa gets up from the table.

He shakes my hand. So thank you for speaking with me. Thank you. I'd been so nervous before. But what strikes me now, when Ofa is getting in the car to leave, is the ordinariness of the whole encounter. He was polite. He helped me when my microphone wires got tangled.

He seemed like an average guy with a grinding job. It was almost easy to forget what chaos, what suffering comes out of that so-called job, and how many lives have been upended by online scams. On the next episode of Love, Janessa, our search for Janessa Brazil closes in. Hi, do you speak English? No.

I wanted someone to tell me why Janessa seemed to disappear around 2016. OK. I think she's finding out if someone speaks English. I can speak to you. Señora, ¿alguien fala inglés? At one point, I started to wonder if Janessa had died. This explanation seemed entirely possible. Her photos, all our photos, live on forever, long after we're gone. But then

my producers sent me a link. Janessa, say hi to Nicole. Hi, Nicole. Hi, Janessa. And suddenly, she seemed very much alive. Love, Janessa is produced by Antica Productions and Telltale Industries for the BBC World Service and CBC Podcasts. I'm Hannah Ajala. Our producers are Katrina Onstead and Laura Regehr. Associate producers are Hayley Choi and Simona Ratta.

Sound design and audio mix by Philip Wilson and Janine White. Executive producers are Stuart Cox and Jago Lee. At CBC Podcasts, Emily Cannell is Coordinating Producer. Chris Oak is Executive Producer. And Arif Noorani is the Director. At the BBC World Service, Anne Dixie is senior podcast producer and John Manel is the podcast commissioning editor. Thanks for listening.

A BBC World Service and CBC Podcast production.