Serial fraudster arrested at Mallam

The Accra Central police have apprehended a 35-year-old man for allegedly defrauding 19 victims with various sums of money under the pretext of securing them visas to travel to the United States of America.

Bismarck Kweku Agyapong aka Asamoah Osafo, aka Richard Appiah aka Frank Brobbey, was arrested at his hideout at Mallam, in the Ga South municipality when two of his victims reported the incident to the police.

He is alleged to have collected monies totaling GH¢34,000 and $19,000 from his victims.

His purported accomplice, Obed Kweku Tetteh aka Honourable Evans Odoom, who claimed to be a member of parliament assigned to the protocol section of the Flagstaff House, is at large and being wanted by the police.

Narrating how they were defrauded to DAILY GUIDE, the victims said sometime last year, they saw an advertisement of Angel Travel and Tour Agency on Adom TV and Alive TV that persons who wanted to study abroad or travel outside the country and needed visas should contact them.

The victims said they picked the contact numbers and when they called the numbers, Asamoah answered the calls and further gave them another number to contact one Hon. Evans Odoom who could assist them with the visas.

They said when they contacted Odoom, he asked them to send their passport booklets in addition to four passport pictures and send them through courier services to him, using his telephone number.

The victims asserted that Odoom said since he was a busy person, he would send one of his boys to pick them up later at the station for the process to begin.

They said a few days later, Odoom posted a picture of a passport with visa through their WhatsApp pages and added a message that their visas were ready.

Odoom in the message asked them to pay GH¢2,000 as visa processing fee before the passports would be handed over to them.

He gave them a number to send the money through his mobile money but after collecting the money, he again sent an account number requesting that they should pay GH¢6,000 each.

The two victims said through those numbers, a total of 17 victims also contacted Odoom for visas.

They said they never heard from him again and so reported the matter to the police.

Confirming the story, the crime officer in-charge of the Accra Central District Command, DSP Owusu Sekyere, said Asamoah was arrested on Sunday, May 22, 2016 at Mallam after receiving the complaints.

A search conducted in his room revealed six passports of his but with different names.

Police also discovered some envelopes belonging to victims and their passport pictures.

Those without passports had thumb-printed on plain sheets and sent to him.

Meanwhile, five other victims have also reported at the Documents and Visa Fraud Department of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) that Agyapong had also defrauded them.