Certified fraud examiner and professional investigator Ransford Nana Addo Junior has warned that advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) are making online scams more sophisticated, with some fraud schemes now being carried out by automated systems rather than humans.

Speaking in an interview on Joy FM on Friday, July 31, 2026, he said AI has significantly improved the methods used by fraudsters, making it increasingly difficult for people to detect scams.

“It has gotten to the point where AI has added value to the job of scammers, and now scams are being automated. So, the person who is scamming you may not even be a human being, may be an AI,” he said.

According to him, AI-powered systems have been trained to engage victims in convincing conversations by responding intelligently to messages.

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“They've been groomed. Machine learning has taught them how to respond to every message. They chat with you,” he explained.

Ransford Nana Addo Junior also dismissed the perception that scammers are uneducated individuals, stressing that fraud has evolved into a well-organised criminal enterprise.

“I just want us to lay the foundation that scammers are not uneducated people or people who do not have an idea of what they are doing. They go through proper training, they go through grooming,” he said.

He added that many fraudsters study techniques similar to those used by certified forensic examiners and police investigators.

“They learn the sort of things that we learn as certified forensic examiners and police investigators,” he added.

He noted that scams have existed throughout history because some people will always seek to exploit others for financial gain.

“From the days of Adam and Eve, scams have been with us, and they will continue to be with us because human beings would like to take advantage of other people,” he said.

He explained that fraudsters often manipulate emotions such as greed, fear, urgency and the desire to make quick money, leaving victims to realise they have been deceived only after losing their money.

He listed romance scams, money mule scams, investment scams, lottery scams, Ponzi and pyramid schemes, recruitment scams and online shopping scams among the most common forms of fraud today.

He further stated that online scams are only one aspect of a much broader criminal network.

“We have failed to understand that fraud and scams have become a profession for people who also go through apprenticeship. They train,” he said.

Recounting one of his investigations, he revealed that an operation with the police at Teshie-Nungua Estate uncovered a highly organised scam syndicate operating like a corporate organisation.

“We arrested a guy in Teshie-Nungua Estate, and when we rounded them up with the police, we saw that they have an organogram. They go through interviews, they have a pay structure, and these are people who are recruited to scam,” he revealed.

He explained that members of these groups work in teams to identify potential victims, create fake websites, run deceptive online advertisements and build trust with targets before stealing from them.

“They are scouting for targets, they prepare the grounds, they groom them, they enter into designing fake websites, and then they do adverts. They have targets to meet at the end of the day,” he said.

Tracing the evolution of fraud, he said scams in the 1980s were largely opportunistic and carried out through face-to-face interactions, but the rise of the internet transformed them into planned and organised operations.

“But immediately we entered the 2000s, when the internet and computers entered the sub-Saharan African region, and we had internet cafés, fraud moved that way. Scams moved from opportunistic to what you call planned,” he explained.

He added that internet access enabled fraud to become cross-border, while anonymity became one of the biggest advantages for criminals.

“It got organised. It got cross-border because the internet gives you a wide reach. Limitless anonymity is a godfather of scams because you don't know who you are talking to,” he said.

Ransford Nana Addo Junior also warned that the growing popularity of online shopping has created more opportunities for scammers to exploit unsuspecting consumers.

“Customers and consumers like convenience and the criminals love it. Because you don't want to walk to that shop to go and pick an item. You want to place a call so that the item is brought to you,” he said.

“The convenience that you seek, they will come between you and a retail shop and take money from you. The retail shop doesn't get the money, the customer doesn't get the goods, the criminal is happy,” he stated.

He further argued that the true scale of online fraud is much higher than official records suggest because many victims fail to report their experiences.

“From my experience, when one person reports, and somebody is arrested, then you see 10 other people come to say, ‘They did the same thing to me,’” he said.

“My statistic is that it is only one out of 10 stories that is told. The rest are not told. It is only 10% of victims who actually discuss this or even report it,” he added.

ANAS/MA

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