TORONTO-CANADA [December 8, 2013] – Every year thousands of Ghanaians fall victim to fraud of which most of the victims do not think it could happen to them.
This is because fraudsters are using increasingly sophisticated methods to target their Ghanaian victims of all ages and from all walks of life.
Fraud prevention month should be an annual event that would give private and public organizations involved in the fight against fraud and corruption an opportunity to further raise public awareness.
It is by through this awareness; Ghanaians can avoid becoming victims to organized crimes, corruption by fraudsters with sophisticated methods.
The government claims it is committed to fighting crime but day in and day out more people continue to fall victim to all kinds of fraud which means that government commitment is not including development of initiatives that would help inform Ghanaians about how to protect themselves from related crimes.
Ghanaians need to be vigilant about fraud and corrupt practices not only during Christmas festivities, yuletide, Easter occasions; traditional festival occasions or national holidays but all year long and through public awareness, the people can be informed about how to better protect themselves.
Media reports from the mother land via the internet indicates that all Ghanaians are concerned about fraud and other corrupt practices going on because of the possibility that it can de-stabilize the country?s national economy as strengthening organized crime groups continue to emerge at every corner in the country.
The great number of fraud is either committed by the young ones in the society of which more and more of these schemes are being attributed to organized crime.
?The impact on individuals, families and business is devastating as retirement savings, homes, business and in some cases, lives have been lost? a critical observation of the situation far from home.
But what can bring the smiles on the face of the people is that most of the frauds can be prevented by identifying the methods used by fraudsters and these methods can only be made known through an awareness month because,? the more you know about fraud, the less you are to fall for it?.
Let the government be reminded that organized crime presents a serious threat to Ghanaian communities which is linked to a wide range of criminal activities including fraud noting that,? fraud is the first step to better protecting yourself since one victim is too many victims to follow suit?.
How many people know how to shield their PIN number from view or asking questions of telemarketers as they are not suppose to be afraid of offending people asking for their money?
It is by fraud prevention month that all such topics to raise awareness of organized crime or fraud such as identity theft, phishing, online shopping and credit card fraud could be discussed for people to know how to prevent fraud.
Let the law makers start to discuss this whiles we petition the president to institute a national month of fraud prevention to check organized crime and corruption.
CONTACT:
STEPHEN A QUAYE, TORONTO-CANADA E-mail:[email protected]
