African Gays Target of Backmail and Extortion

In Africa, as more gays are trying to come to terms with their sexuality, blackmail and extortion has become a lucrative internet scam business.

Victims are lured into what is referred to as a “honey trap.” This is when unsuspecting persons are lured into dark alleys or traps with promises of sex or sexual favors, but actually meet with criminals who threaten, black mail and assault.

This all starts on internet dating sites with alluring fake profiles. Of course, most of them aren’t actually gays.

There is a blog called, Fakers2Go, that monitor and collate information on Ghanaians who advertise on gay dating sites.

According to Fakers2Go,

In Ghana, On-line criminals are targeting men who have sex with men (MSMs). They aim to extort money through kidnapping, violence and use of Ghana’s archaic colonial law.
As homosexuality is illegal in Ghana, MSM’s have no protection under the law and reporting a crime can lead to the victim being criminalised.
Furthermore, the police often work with the criminals to extort money and therefore cannot be trusted.

GALCK, a Kenyan website reports that blackmailers ask for as much as KSH2,000,000 (~$26,000USD) and as little as KSH500 (~$6USD)

With governments in Africa condemning homosexuality as illegal (ex. Senegal sentencing gay men to eight year jail terms) and corrupt police, there is little help for the victims from the online criminals.

For more resources on this topic, visit:

• Easy Track Ghana – http://easytrackghana.com/G.htm
• Fakers2Go – http://fakers2go.blogspot.com
• Gay Ghana Online – http://www.gayghana.org/page/Gay+visitors+to+Ghana
• Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya – http://galck.org

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