PRINCE: Love.
♪ This heart has wings ♪♪
DEBBIE: He was my life outside of work.
MARGARET: Everything he said was just so sweet.
DEBBIE: I just want to hug him and have him hold me.
Like, I just want to hug him so bad.
KIRIKU: Every single day, he was saying something that
would touch my heart.
♪ This heart has wings ♪♪
MS: I was like a fish.
That hook was so far down in my belly.
MARGARET: He's an evil bastard.
He is such an evil bastard.
DEBBIE: I sold jewelry. I sold investments.
MS: I gave him $2.8 million.
MARIANA: Romance scamming,
a global crime wave that surged during our loneliest
months of the pandemic, wiping out more than $300 million
from American bank accounts in 2020.
WOMAN: Hello...
MARIANA: To find out where some of that money went,
we'll track down these tenacious sweet talkers
halfway around the globe.
How much money has Michael sent you so far?
PUNISHER: More than 10K.
MARIANA: More than $10,000?
And learn how they've perfected their insidious, one‐two punch.
Before taking your money...
♪ Sweet words to you ♪♪
MARIANA: They steal your heart.
♪ ♪
MARIANA: So, we're right?
WOMAN: Yes. MAN: Right right.
MARIANA: Right right. Yeah. Okay.
Sun‐drenched Florida.
♪ ♪
MARIANA: With all its wealth and retirees.
It's what you might call a "target rich" environment
for romance scammers.
SUSAN: Okay.
MARIANA: Do you want to put on your glasses,
just in case?
SUSAN: Oh, are we ready?
MAN: Camera speeds. Okay, we're rolling.
SUSAN: I've never been married,
but I've dated and I just kind of felt like I wanted to
finally meet somebody.
DEBBIE: After Lou died, I, I couldn't sleep well.
MARGARET: You know, after a divorce,
you're feeling very lonely.
MS: I thought, "You know, if I'm going to try marriage,
I'd better get going because I'm 68 years old."
SUSAN: So, I signed up on Facebook Dating,
and a half hour after I signed up,
um, I met Damian.
He says he lives just the next city over,
he's an orthopedic surgeon, and we're the same age.
And...
MARIANA: He tells Susan he's on a
four‐month UN peace‐keeping mission in Yemen.
From his photos, he's fit and slightly graying.
SUSAN: He's very handsome. He's very flirty.
I thought, "Okay, I can flirt,
this is fun."
He tells me, "I'm really extremely grateful for having
you in my life, spending time with me drowns out all of the
other concerns and lights up my life."
MARIANA: Oh, wow. SUSAN: Let's see...
MARIANA: Is this your journal that you kept...
SUSAN: Yes.
MARIANA: All the conversations you had?
SUSAN: Yes. I wrote everything down.
MARIANA: So, you were keeping a journal of what you thought
was a possible relationship that you were going to have with this person?
SUSAN: Right, my heart really was overtaking my brain...
MARIANA: Wow.
SUSAN: Completely. Um, I thought about him constantly.
Every time the little "ding, ding" on Google Hangouts,
I'd go grab my phone.
(text alerts)
DEBBIE: When Eric and I started writing,
it filled up that hole.
He listened to me.
It was a great healing thing for me.
MS: He was just so romantic. He'd write me love poems.
MARGARET: Every single day.
He was filling that void in my heart that was
my broken heart.
SUSAN: He is completely and totally crazy about me
and wants to be with me every single day.
It's like, who doesn't want that?
MARIANA: But only two weeks later,
she senses trouble.
SUSAN: I wake up Monday morning and there's no videos,
no quotes, there's nothing.
So, I sent him a message.
"I don't know why I haven't heard from you."
MARIANA: Mmm‐hmm.
SUSAN: "I hope you're okay."
And I have been stressing now, the entire day.
Is he alive? Is he dead? I, I don't know.
MARIANA: The following morning,
Susan finally gets a message that begins with
six crying emojis.
SUSAN: He said to me, "We were under attack.
There were guys that came into the compound.
Uh, one guy was shot.
I really want to get out of this place.
I'm scared for my life."
He then tells me some of his colleagues paid their contract off
and he said, "I can pay them $30,000."
MARIANA: Wow.
SUSAN: "And I can then go home.
You know, you and I are a couple,
we're in this together."
He said, "I thought if maybe you could pay half,"
he goes, "that would be great."
MARGARET: It's so embarrassing that it was close
to $300,000.
DEBBIE: $1,080,762. MS: $2.8 million.
NORAH: More than 6,400 Americans say they were
scammed after visiting dating websites.
MARIANA: The rise of romance scams and our
increasing ease with online dating go hand‐in‐hand.
More than 44 million Americans went on dating sites
last year, giving scammers plenty to work with.
But victims are also being targeted on social media.
REPORTER: A 69‐year‐old Sarasota woman will soon lose
her house after falling victim to an online dating scam.
MARIANA: The median loss of a victim in
2020 was $2,500.
But for victims 70 and older, it was nearly 10 grand.
With arrests rare and recovering money practically
unheard of, romance scammers operate with near impunity,
but every so often, there's a high profile bust that
provides a window into this murky underworld.
Earlier this year, in a case that's still pending,
US Law Enforcement charged six alleged ringleaders of a
massive cybercriminal enterprise,
that included romance scamming,
based in a West African country of Ghana.
(overlapping chatter)
Ghana is booming.
Its economy is one of the fastest growing in the world.
Big‐name companies like Google and Twitter are
planting headquarters here to take advantage of an
English‐speaking population that's young,
tech savvy, and ambitious.
But those same traits have also made Ghana a hot bed for
romance scammers.
That's why I've come to track them down and to understand
how they've turned online seduction into a thriving
criminal industry.
♪ She a Ghana scammer ♪
(singing in native language)
MARIANA: One that's even made its way into
the country's music scene.
(singing in native language)
DIRECTOR: Okay. Reset.
MARIANA: What was the music video you're shooting here, what is it about?
MARIANA: Meet Boss Bouncy,
the man behind the song "Ghana Scammer."
MARIANA: So, she's a gold digger...
BOUNCY: Yeah. MARIANA: And a scammer?
MARIANA: Is scamming big in Ghana?
MARIANA: So, would you be able to,
you think, introduce us to some people that you know or
is that not something you feel comfortable with?
MARIANA: But before I leave,
Boss Bouncy offers a little tip.
He tells me when scammers get paid,
they like to celebrate, have a few drinks.
♪ Hey, hey she a Ghana scammer ♪♪
(singing in native language)
MARIANA: Hi, good evening. MAN: Hi.
MARIANA: Do you work here? MAN: I work here, yeah.
MARIANA: The clubs and pool halls of Accra,
Ghana's capital.
Do you mind if I just go up the stairs and see,
and then, I'll come right down?
Could be the perfect places to hear things that
shouldn't be heard.
MARIANA: Okay. Here's our guy. Here's the guy.
The guy that's going to stop and tell me.
Hi. Okay. So, you're the man to know here?
MARIANA: I know, and I just practically stalked you.
BEN: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
MARIANA: After a bit of hustle,
I finally meet a guy who says he can help.
MARIANA: Awesome.
MARIANA: I'll text you. BEN: Okay.
MARIANA: Later in the night,
I get a message telling me to go to a certain address and
talk to the man playing pool.
Hi.
ODO: Hi.
MARIANA: So, I know you don't want me to call you
by your real name, so what should we call you?
MARIANA: Odo. Okay, what does that mean?
MARIANA: Love? ODO: Yeah.
MARIANA: So, um, you know why we're here.
ODO: Yeah, yeah.
MARIANA: Can you tell me a little bit what you do?
MARIANA: So how many women have you scammed?
MARIANA: Finally, I've found a scammer.
MARIANA: What was your first fake name?
MARIANA: Morris Jackson?
MARIANA: I'm in Accra, Ghana,
one of the epicenters of romance scamming.
This man, Odo, tells me he was introduced to scamming by a
friend and instantly saw success.
MARIANA: Pretending it was you?
MARIANA: The story Odo faked is a favorite
of romance scammers.
Work sent him to Ghana, but since no one took
American Express here,
he couldn't buy anything and needed cash.
MARIANA: Clients, that's what they call victims.
And so, the first time you ever received money was $300.
MARIANA: From that Canadian woman?
MARIANA: And how much money do you think you've made from this?
MARIANA: Wow.
MARIANA: These are scripts that...
ODO: Yeah. MARIANA: Buy, you buy them?
MARIANA: These scripts are almost like
"choose your own adventure" books.
Except the scammer chooses your adventure,
the romantic plot you'll follow, based on the answers you give
and the type of person he thinks you are.
MS: I wanted a person to travel with.
He, he loved doing that. He wanted to show me the world.
DEBBIE: He was going to be leaving for about a month to go
to, to the Far East to move hardwood trees from
Malaysia to India.
ODO: Um.
MARIANA: Are you okay? ODO: Yeah.
MARIANA: Are you okay talking with people coming in?
ODO: Yeah.
MARIANA: He's taking a risk speaking with me.
The wrong person listening could mean trouble.
Got a little nervous.
ODO: Yeah. Yeah.
MARIANA: Because there are people looking,
I could see your eyes.
You were nervous about who got in and what they're listening.
MARIANA: Really? And what, do you pay him a percentage of what you make?
MARIANA: Wow. This is news to me.
I'd assume romance scammers worked as lone wolves.
But he tells me it's more like a pack,
with an experienced boss who knows how to go in for the kill.
He's like a finisher? He's the person that finishes?
MARIANA: It's the finisher who often writes
the scripts and takes over the transaction once their victim is
ready to pay.
Only a small percentage goes to frontline scammers like Odo.
Do you think I could meet a finisher?
MARIANA: Why?
MARIANA: So, you wouldn't be able to talk to your boss,
The Finisher, about me, right?
Because that would put you in danger?
♪ ♪
MARIANA: Okay, so this person is still in the game?
He's still scamming?
GRACIE: Yes, he's still in the game.
MARIANA: I'm driving with a local journalist
who's been reporting on these scams for years.
He's putting me in touch with a scammer he knows in Kumasi.
About 150 miles from Accra.
He says the dangers Odo mentioned are real.
That's why he doesn't want his identity revealed.
GRACIE: If you talk about scamming in Ghana,
it's, it's huge.
So, any attempt by anyone to,
to want to, you know, unravel anything,
get insight, you could be putting your life at risk.
MARIANA: Tell me more about the person we're meeting.
GRACIE: Right.
So, um, he goes by the name, uh, The Punisher, and.
MARIANA: The Punisher?
GRACIE: The Punisher.
And he has this one other person that he works with.
MARIANA: I have no idea what to expect as I walk up
the stairs of this upscale apartment building.
But instead of the armed men and pat down that I'm used to,
I'm invited into a living room.
MIAMI QUEEN: Sweetheart, I can't see you.
Oh, there you are.
RON (over phone): Oh, hi.
MARIANA: Where it looks like a romance scam is in full swing.
MIAMI QUEEN: So beautiful, thank you.
(smooches)
(singing in native language).
MARIANA: He's going to fix it.
MARIANA: Are you calling somebody?
What if they answer?
MIAMI QUEEN: Hey, sweetheart.
MARIANA: I'm in Ghana,
watching two romance scammers at work.
He calls himself The Punisher and she is Miami Queen.
(smooches)
MIAMI QUEEN: I missed you.
MARIANA: And to my surprise,
they're scamming men, not women.
MIAMI QUEEN: Yeah, I know, but I told you I had problems with my phone, so.
THE PUNISHER: Okay.
MIAMI QUEEN: Sweetheart, let me go and take a shower, okay?
I'll call you right when I'm done, yeah?
Don't go anywhere, just wait for me.
And we're done.
MARIANA: So, what just happened here?
You started to call somebody, right?
THE PUNISHER: Mmm‐hmm.
MARIANA: And then when he accepts, if it's a video,
you pass it on to her?
MIAMI QUEEN: Yeah.
MARIANA: When you're communicating,
he thinks he's communicating the whole time with her.
THE PUNISHER: Yeah. MIAMI QUEEN: Yeah.
MARIANA: But he's communicating with you?
MIAMI QUEEN: Mmm‐hmm.
MARIANA: And then you're just.
MIAMI QUEEN: Mine is just to look beautiful and make him feel sweets.
How much I love him.
MARIANA: Most of romance scamming is
messaging, just typing.
But they've rented a space tonight for these occasional
video calls, hoping to satisfy their clients.
How many people do you guys know that are scammers?
THE PUNISHER: A whole lot of people.
MIAMI QUEEN: Oh, my God, you can't count them.
THE PUNISHER: We have, we have, we have friend scammers.
MARIANA: Like dozens? Hundreds?
MIAMI QUEEN: Dozens.
MARIANA: All your friends are doing it?
MIAMI QUEEN: Yeah.
THE PUNISHER: I have friends who are rich, very rich.
MIAMI QUEEN: They've built houses.
Big, big cars.
THE PUNISHER: Everybody's making money.
MARIANA: Wiring money, gift cards,
or straight up cash are preferred.
But payment in Bitcoin is also becoming popular.
MARIANA: So, you're pretending to be a woman and scamming men?
MARIANA: It's easier to get money from men,
he says, and there's simply more men using online dating sites.
And yet, back in the States,
far fewer men than women report being victims.
And this person you're talking to, Michael,
has no idea that you're actually a man in Ghana?
MARIANA: Right.
THE PUNISHER: I think Michael has been too good to me.
MARIANA: How much money has Michael sent you so far?
THE PUNISHER: More than 10‐K.
MARIANA: More than $10,000? For what? What do you say?
MARIANA: Wow.
THE PUNISHER: Okay. So, I do this.
MARIANA: Are you actually calling him?
THE PUNISHER: Yes.
MARIANA: Where is he?
THE PUNISHER: Virginia.
MARIANA: Oh.
THE PUNISHER: So, Michael is not online.
MARIANA: Oh, okay.
No dice, but had Michael picked up,
he would have seen this video recording of a young woman.
MARIANA: But if you talk, it doesn't match.
MARIANA: Oh, my God. Wow. So, you have the video and then you're just typing?
MARIANA: Where did you get this video?
MARIANA: Oh, you buy it?
MARIANA: Like scripts,
these videos are part of a scammer's professional tool kit.
An underground industry unto itself.
(phone ringing)
MIAMI QUEEN: Hey, baby.
Hey, honey.
Hey, sweetheart.
I love you.
Hi. I missed you.
MARIANA: I keep watching them through the night,
but no money has come in.
Not even from Michael.
So, they say it's time to take it to the next level.
♪ Going all night 'cause I ain't no slouch ♪♪
MARIANA: Black magic,
The Punisher will take us to the woman who will put a love spell on Michael,
one that will fill his heart and empty his wallet.
♪ ♪
MARIANA: They call her "Nana,"
a title of high respect in the local language.
(speaking in native language).
MARIANA: She plays a vital role in a home‐grown
black magic‐infused scamming culture called "Sakawa."
It links traditional West African rituals and blessings to
the God‐given fortunes of cyber fraud,
the kind aimed at foreigners in far‐off lands.
MARIANA: Scammers like The Punisher are often
called Sakawa boys.
And today, he really needs her powers to work.
MARIANA: So, you think that now that you've met with the priest,
you're going to receive the money.
MARIANA: How much money have you made, do you think, from scamming?
MARIANA: 20 grand is a lot of money,
especially in Ghana.
But it's pocket change compared to what some of the bigger
operators are raking in.
That's who I'm still trying to find,
one of the alpha ones of the scamming world.
A figure known as The Finisher.
So, I think this is it.
Yeah.
So, a lot of these romance scams are now being done by
sort of larger criminal networks.
And one of the leaders of one of these groups has agreed to meet us.
The groundwork for this meeting started back a week ago.
My local producer had been digging and connected with a man
named Pussycat, who claimed to be a finisher.
We first met him without cameras on a rooftop in Accra.
He said little.
I could tell he was skittish.
I left dubious that we would hear from him again.
But to my surprise, yesterday, he called and gave us this
address off the coast.
Hi. I'm the journalist.
You said I could come and meet you with your crew.
MARIANA: Okay.
MARIANA: Oh, wow.
Does she actually exist? Is this a real person?
MARIANA: To my right is Kiriku,
the master of forged documents.
If a client wants proof of anything, he's the man to go to.
MARIANA: To his right is Prince.
He's the hunter.
So, you're the first person in this,
you start looking on different dating sites.
MARIANA: His talent? Choosing the right bait, while casting the widest net 'cause
there's a lot of different fish in the sea.
MARIANA: Then comes the impersonator,
he goes by the name Shadow.
MARIANA: Sort of like the actor, I guess?
SHADOW (female voice): Hey, hi James. How are you?
MARIANA: That's his voice when he scams men.
SHADOW (female voice): All right, honey. Bye.
MARIANA: And finally,
the guy who brought me here, Pussycat.
And what is yours then?
MARIANA: So, it's like The Finisher?
PUSSYCAT: The Finisher.
MARIANA: At last, The Finisher.
You start the goal of it all, which is getting the money?
PUSSYCAT: Yes. Yes.
MARIANA: "Format" he says, it's another word for "script."
MARIANA: Right.
MARIANA: So, you don't need something to copy and paste.
You have it all in your head.
PUSSYCAT: No, I have them here.
MARIANA: It's his long experience mining the
psyche of clients that gives The Finisher the insights to
write these fake scenarios.
MARIANA: Uh‐hmm.
Whether you call them scripts or formats,
they are the beating heart of this scam's multi‐million‐dollar industry.
MARIANA: You're that convincing? PUSSYCAT: Sure.
MARIANA: You think so? PUSSYCAT: Yeah.
PUSSYCAT: That's okay. MARIANA: That's okay.
What do you mean? You don't want him to say more?
PUSSYCAT: Yes. Yeah.
MARIANA: Pussycat immediately cuts things off,
but I get it, small gifts might lure me to reciprocate with
bigger gifts and someday, maybe a cash loan.
PUSSYCAT: This is how we do it.
MARIANA: Though they aren't willing to give out
their formats, they let me listen in on a call.
In Texas?
KIRIKU: Yeah. MARIANA: And it's a man as well? KIRIKU: Yeah.
MARIANA: Yes. It's another male victim.
How old?
PRINCE: 53.
MARIANA: I'm quickly realizing that targeting
men is actually quite common here.
Even though we hear almost exclusively about female victims.
MARIANA: They're all telling me the same thing,
not only do men have more money,
they're much easier to fool.
PRINCE (female voice) : Hello? Hello? Can you hear me?
SHADOW (female voice): Hey. Hi, darling. How are you?
How are you doing?
JAMES (over phone): Why can't I see you?
SHADOW (female voice): Oh, I have a little problem with my camera.
JAMES (over phone): That sucks.
SHADOW (female voice) Yes. Sorry, okay?
Hey, what's up?
I miss you.
JAMES (over phone): But when are you coming up?
SHADOW (female voice): Okay.
I'm going to be up in like half an hour.
JAMES (over phone): In a half an hour, you are coming up?
Will it take you an hour and a half to get here?
PRINCE: He's asking you when are you coming up.
JAMES (over phone): A month ago
SHADOW (female voice): Ah, okay. I know.
But, you know, because of the coronavirus.
JAMES (over phone): Oh, you have the virus now?
SHADOW (female voice): Oh. No, no, no, no, no.
I don't have the virus personally,
but it's in here in Africa.
MARIANA: Looks like someone has gone off script.
PRINCE (female voice): Hello?
♪ ♪
JAMES (over phone): A month ago
SHADOW (female voice): Ah, okay. I know.
But, you know, because of the coronavirus,
it's in here in Africa.
MARIANA: I'm with a den of romance scammers in Ghana.
They're working together to scam a man in Texas.
PRINCE (female voice): Hello?
MARIANA: But because they're juggling dozens of active clients,
they briefly lose lose track of the script.
PRINCE (female voice): Hello? Can you hear me?
Hello?
PRINCE (female voice): I would like to come over, like, this weekend.
But I don't have enough gas in my car.
And I had to use that little box you sent me to get some little medications.
JAMES (over phone): All right.
PRINCE (female voice): Okay. Bye for now.
JAMES (over phone): Bye.
PRINCE (female voice): Love you.
MARIANA: I still don't understand how they
explain their strange accents.
But maybe they're right, men looking for love are
just easier to fool.
So, in this format,
it's an American girl willing to go see this person.
ALL: Yes.
MARIANA: And is waiting for you and is sending you money
to go and see him.
PRINCE: Yes.
MARIANA: And what's his name?
PRINCE: His first name is James.
MARIANA: How much money has James sent?
PRINCE: 100 bucks. MARIANA: $100, $100?
MARIANA: And what does James think you look like?
PRINCE: Beautiful woman.
I've been sending him videos, too.
MARIANA: So, it's not difficult to find photos and videos of.
MARIANA: Because that would ruin your business.
PUSSYCAT: That is my strength.
MARIANA: If you could have a job as an actual graphic designer,
a professional graphic designer, would you rather do that?
KIRIKU: Yeah, that's what I wanted to do.
MARIANA: Volume, expertise, efficiency.
Sure, they make mistakes.
SHADOW (female voice): Hello baby, can you hear me?
MARIANA: But with their strength in numbers,
they can regroup, readjust, and scale up their romantic pursuits
over and over and over again.
DEBBIE: After he confessed, I felt so stupid.
I had been a former Air Force Intelligence Officer.
I had been a senior bank manager.
I'd had legal training.
I was running a company.
MS: People say, "Don't send money to a stranger."
Well, he wasn't a stranger by that point.
This guy knew more about me than probably any man had ever known.
MARGARET: He texted me back one day and said,
"I'm a poor Black man from Africa."
My whole world just fell apart, completely shattered.
MARIANA: Hi, Ben. SUSAN: Hi, Ben.
BEN (over phone): Hi. How's it going?
SUSAN: It's great, how are you?
BEN (over phone): I'm doing well.
MARIANA: Back in the States,
I again meet up with Susan.
She wants me to witness something she's been eager to do
for quite some time.
BEN: Sounds like you've run into to some questionable,
uh, lovers.
MARIANA: She's enlisted the help of Ben Taylor,
a scam buster who exposes many of their tricks on his popular
YouTube channel.
BEN: Today we're going to talk about a scam that happens to you
when you're online looking for someone to have a
good time with.
MARIANA: He's part of a growing number of cyber
vigilantes disrupting the work of scammers,
some have been able to freeze assets,
shut down their bank accounts, even hack into their computers.
BEN: So, tell me a little bit about these,
these folks that have reached out to you.
BEN (over phone): How did it begin?
SUSAN: I signed up on Facebook Dating,
SUSAN (over phone): I met Damian.
And after two weeks of chatting,
he asked for $15,000 to help him get home.
BEN: Wow.
MARIANA: In fact, when I interviewed Susan before
I left for Ghana, she told me that nearly every man she met
online after Damian was also a scammer.
SUSAN: I met Ryan.
And then I met Joe.
And Joe and Kenny played their game very well.
It's guy after guy, after guy, after guy.
Probably 90% of them are fake.
MARIANA: Frustrated and fed up,
she decided to fight back.
BEN: So, you've talked to some of these gentlemen on the phone,
is that right?
SUSAN: One calls me every morning and every evening;
he thinks I'm going to go get
$8,000 out of my bank and take it to the Bitcoin location.
BEN: Well, are you going to do it?
SUSAN: I'm going to pretend to do it.
BEN (over phone): Okay.
MARIANA: The scammer named Paul says
he's working on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.
BEN: I'm doing some reverse image searches to see if I
can find this guy anywhere.
SUSAN (over phone): Okay.
BEN: I haven't found anything yet.
Oh, hold on.
I think I've just found something.
The first thing that pops up is a David Hoffman who's a lifting supervisor.
MARIANA: So, you think the real guy is called David Hoffman and
that this guy is using that photo.
BEN: I'm thinking there's a guy in Northern Ireland who
has no idea that somebody else is using his picture.
SUSAN: I would agree.
BEN (over phone): Okay,
BEN: So maybe we can try to find out who this guy is
and where he's from.
SUSAN: Okay.
So, I'm just off work, heading.
MARIANA: Oh, he wants to talk on the phone.
SUSAN: Yeah.
All right, one second.
MARIANA: I can't wait to hear this guy's voice.
SUSAN: Okay.
All right, here we go.
Hello, honey.
SUSAN (over phone): Honey, are you there?
SUSAN: Oh, I'm better now I'm talking to you.
Listen, I'm getting ready to head to the bank, okay?
SUSAN: I do!
And honey, I forgot, why, why did you need the money?
I forgot.
SUSAN: Right, right.
SUSAN: Well, my first reaction would be to run up and give you
a big hug and kiss.
SUSAN: Honey, can you hold just a second?
BEN: We might be able to see exactly where he is,
but we need him to click on a link.
BEN (over phone): What if we tell him that you're withdrawing the money right now
and you're on your way to the Bitcoin machine?
We could probably send him the link to a location,
like a gas station or something, where the Bitcoin machine is,
and we can say, "Is this the place I need to go to
deposit the money?"
And if he clicks on it,
then I might have some information to give you.
SUSAN: Okay. Yeah.
MARIANA: Okay. Okay, sent.
BEN: All right.
Now we all wait and pray that he's dumb enough to click on the link.
MARIANA: Oh, my God.
I'm so nervous. Are you?
SUSAN: Yeah.
I feel like he's going to jump right out of it and grab us.
BEN (over phone): All right.
SUSAN: Yeah. BEN: I just got a click.
BEN: Let's go ahead and tell him that you are getting
the money now.
MARIANA: Okay, sent.
BEN: All right.
Now we all wait and pray that he's dumb enough to click
on the link.
MARIANA: I'm so nervous. Are you?
SUSAN: Yeah. MARIANA: Right?
BEN (over phone): All right.
BEN: I just got a click.
BEN (over phone): He clicked it
MARIANA: Both the FBI and the Secret Service can
take on investigations, but rarely can they bring justice to
American victims.
MARIANA: That's why so many are turning to
people like Ben not only to search for their money,
but with a craving to give these scammers a dose of their
own medicine.
BEN: I've got all the information right here.
BEN (over phone): Are you ready
SUSAN: Yes.
MARIANA: The scammer, named Paul,
says he's working on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico.
BEN (over phone): The time zone...
BEN: In his phone is putting him in Accra, Ghana.
MARIANA: Wow.
SUSAN: Accra, Ghana. Where the heck is that?
MARIANA: In West Africa.
In Ghana.
According to a 2018 research paper,
only Nigeria tops Ghana in housing the IP addresses of
romance scammers.
But since Ghana is only a seventh of Nigeria's population,
one country is clearly punching above its weight.
SUSAN: All right.
So, I'm getting ready now to block him because we're done
with him, right?
MARIANA: All we had was Paul's city,
not his real name or address, or anything that might lead
to an actual bust.
But still, Susan is clearly enjoying Ben's help.
SUSAN: Oh, it's Lucas.
Oh, it's Lucas. Okay, we'll talk to Lucas.
Hi, Honey.
SUSAN: How are you?
SUSAN: Aw.
MARIANA: Lots of criminals lie and steal but a
romance scammer's con is more intimate.
SUSAN: I love you, honey.
MARIANA: Their payday depends on gaining the
trust and affection of another human being.
SHADOW (female voice): I'll be waiting for you online.
MARIANA: I wonder if that leaves them more conflicted.
THE PUNISHER: I, I love Michael.
He's been so kind to me, you know, since I met him.
MARIANA: I did believe The Punisher when he
told me he'd fallen in love with his victim.
Do you think he'd be so sad if he'd found out that
you were a man?
THE PUNISHER: Yeah.
THE PUNISHER: You know?
MARIANA: Uh‐hmm.
He didn't receive 20,000 from Michael,
but they are still in an online relationship.
MARIANA: For Odo, seeing one of his victims
evicted from her home actually made him leave the game.
MARIANA: You have glasses on, and we can't see very well,
but I can, um...
ODO: Yeah.
MARIANA: You're getting emotional talking about this?
ODO: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
MARIANA: But Miami Queen sees no reason
to feel remorse.
MARIANA: It's a justification I've heard before.
MARIANA: Scams as reparations.
THE PUNISHER: We need to survive.
Africa needs to survive.
MARIANA: At the expense of other peoples' suffering?
MIAMI QUEEN: Yes. THE PUNISHER: Yes.
MARIANA: I wonder if you know how much harm you're actually
inflicting on some people.
THE PUNISHER: Yeah. Yeah.
MARIANA: In our case, we've interviewed mostly women.
THE PUNISHER: Yeah.
MARIANA: And now it's difficult for them to find other people, to trust other people.
Some of the people who lost millions of dollars.
MARIANA: So, it's easier to sleep with a guilty conscience
than it is with an empty stomach?
THE PUNISHER: Uh, yeah.
But, you know, you know, everybody is finding a way to survive.
MARIANA: Before I left Ghana,
Pussycat wanted to show me a fishing village not far from
where he grew up.
So, what's the percentage of people if they're born in a
community like this, that they are able to get out of poverty?
PUSSYCAT: Here.
MARIANA: Ahh.
Yes!
PUSSYCAT: Oh.
PUSSYCAT: Ahh.
MARIANA: A footballer?
(speaking in native language).
PUSSYCAT: Cristiano Ronaldo. MARIANA: Cristiano Ronaldo.
That's a good choice. Portuguese.
PUSSYCAT: He wants to be a banker.
MARIANA: He wants to be a banker?
PUSSYCAT: Yes, he wants to do a banker.
MARIANA: No one grows up wanting to become a romance scammer.
It's a decision made out of desperation.
PUSSYCAT: Okay, mechanical engineer.
MARIANA: Mechanical engineer?
PUSSYCAT: Yeah, so you see, they have dreams.
MARIANA: But I also understand that people do what
they have to do to survive and to provide for their families.
That urge is universal.
Maybe as universal as the search for love itself.
Captioned by Cotter Media Group.