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This is an insidious scam. The body of the message below appears to have been lifted verbatim from a legitimate Ghana development website. The scammer has converted it to his own use by tacking a signature on the end and a “Dear Sir/Madam” on the beginning. Because the whole text is stolen from a legitimate site, it is better written and more persuasive than ordinary scam copy. How can you tell it’s a scam? For one thing, legitimate organizations almost never send unsolicited mass mailings: if you hadn’t signed up for Ghana development news through some online service, there is no reason you should be receiving a message of this kind. But the more conspicuous clues can be found, as usual, in the embedded email addresses. Would a legitimate business organization in any country be using a free hotmail address for its official correspondence? And what’s more, would an agency in Ghana have a reply-to address in Romania?

from: Mr. Joshua Appiah (jappiah50@hotmail.com)
reply-to: jappia@personal.ro
date: Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 8:32 PM
subject: Re:DOING BUSINESS IN GHANA

Dear Sir/Madam,

Re:DOING BUSINESS IN GHANA

Ghana’s wealth of resources, democratic political system and dynamic economy, makes it undoubtedly one of Africa’s leading lights. Gaining the world’s confidence with a peaceful political transition and a grounded and firm commitment to democracy has helped in expediting Ghana’s growth in foreign direct investment (FDI) in recent years.

Ghana has attracted the attention of well-known international businesses, investing in all sectors of our economy. All these investors have come to Ghana because they know we have a wonderful conducive social, political and economic environment in which they can invest, grow and be successful.

Building on significant natural resources, our dear nation is committed to improving its physical infrastructure. Moreover, Ghana has recently embarked on an ambitious but achievable reform programme to improve the investment climate for both local and international investors. These efforts have paid off tremendously with Ghana being recognised by the World Bank as a Top 10 Reformer (Doing Business Report, 2008) for the second year running. Ghana also won the award for “Best Investment Climate” at the CBC-African Business Awards of 2008. Also with the difficult times during last year where most countries did not show good growth levels due to the global economic downturn, Ghana had an economic growth rate of 7.3% which is unprecedented in our history.

As happy as we are to receive such recognition, we are even happier to see increased investments and reinvestments in Ghana as a result of these ongoing reforms. Just this last year alone, the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre registered over US $ 3 billion worth of investments. As is evident, Ghana’s highest recognition has come from the investor community.

Ghana, like our dear family Nigeria, has a solid tradition of investments in agriculture and agro-processing. The financial services and telecommunications sectors are fast gaining ground, providing dynamic and innovative services to the most diverse customers in the world. Further opportunities exist in manufacturing, ICT, and Tourism. Mineral deposits including gold and diamond abound, and with the discovery of oil, Ghana’s famous black star has never shone brighter.

The Ghana Investment Promotion Centre wish to welcome you all to our beautiful country. We trust you will find our reputation for unparalleled hospitality well-deserved, and our ability to triumph in challenging circumstances as steadfast as ever. We re-affirm our commitment to moving our continent forward and look forward to very useful engagements between all stakeholders.

Indeed we are looking forward to doing business with you once you indicate your areas of interest.

Revert ASAP,

Sincerely,

Mr. Joshua Appiah
Assistant Coordinator