Ghanaian Scammer And Mom Arrested In The US For Romance Fraud

A US-based Ghanaian lady, Whitney Adams, has been arrested by authorities in the US for internet-based romance fraud that is said to have accrued over US$6million in fraud money for her.

Ms. Adams was arrested together with her mom, Flavia Annang, who is alleged to be one of many accomplices.

According to court documents, the arrest happened after a dirty money trail led the FBI to the accounts of Flavia Annang.

“Flavia Annang and Whitney Adams and their co-conspirators operated a romance and inheritance fraud in the District of Arizona, and elsewhere, from a time unknown, but at least July 2018, and until April 7, 2022,” papers filed in court said.

It said, other unknown co-conspirators created phony online dating profiles and used them to engage in online chats, text messaging, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls, and other activities with unwitting Victims under the pretext of being engaged in online romantic relationships.

“These unsuspecting Victims were mainly elderly or older men,” the court papers said.

It added that, “the Victims were then persuaded by Annang’s and Adams’ co-conspirators to pay money to her in order to collect a fake inheritance that was allegedly entitled to her.

The Victims were told that the money would be used to pay attorney’s fees, customs duties, government fees, taxes, or other expenses related to “releasing” the inheritance and that they would share in the eventual inheritance or that the “inheritance” proceeds would allow the fake romantic partner to join the Victim in the United States.”

It said the Victims were given addresses to mail checks to as well as bank accounts to wire money or deposit checks to, all of which were controlled by the co-conspirators.

“The MDSBR listed ADAMS as the Registered Agent for McWells Auto Logistics, LLC on January 11, 2021. ANNANG and ADAMS both opened and maintained multiple domestic bank accounts to accept and negotiate monies given by victims of these phony romance scams,” the official statement read.

“When ANNANG and ADAMS received Victim funds, they would use their various bank accounts to accept bank wire or bank deposits, or deposit mail-in checks, and then disperse the funds to other accounts or to locations outside of the United States, all of which was done, at least in part, to conceal the nature, source, and control of those assets.”

According to FBI investigations, one of the victims was duped out of $283,000 between 2018 and 2020.

Another victim is said to have roughly lost $5 million between 2015 and 2022 in the hopes of assisting his internet girlfriend in collecting a $10,000 gold inheritance.