Crypto scam in Ghana: where to report it, in what order

If you have been defrauded in a crypto scheme in Ghana, do two things today: make the report to the police, and put the wallet addresses on public record.

The police report opens a criminal case. The public record works immediately — the address becomes visible to exchange compliance teams, to investigators, and to the next person who searches it before sending money.

The first hours matter more than anything afterwards. In Ghana the money usually leaves twice: first out of your mobile money (MoMo) wallet, and only later onto a chain when the fraudster cashes out. Both legs are traceable while they are fresh, and neither is much use a week later.

Key takeaways

• Report to the Ghana Police Service, whose Cyber Crime Unit sits at the Criminal Investigation Department and now covers all 25 regional commands.
• Ghana Police has no online crime-reporting portal. The eServices site handles clearance certificates and vetting. You go in person; the Police Helpline, 18555 or 191, will tell you how.
• The Cyber Security Authority runs a 24-hour reporting point of contact — call or text 292, WhatsApp 0501603111, email [email protected]. Faster than anything else here, and no substitute for the police report.
• The CSA's old address, cybersecurity.gov.gh, is dead. The live site is csa.gov.gh. Plenty of guides still link the dead one.
• EOCO takes reports online, from victims, with "Internet Fraud" as one of its own categories.
• The Bank of Ghana is not where you report a scammer. Its complaints route challenges how a bank or payment provider treated you, and requires you to go to that institution first.

What to do in the first hours

Stop sending money. There is always one more payment — a withdrawal charge, a tax, a top-up needed to release your balance. That money is gone.

Then, in this order:

1. Call your MoMo provider on their own short code and report the transaction. In most Ghanaian cases this is the leg that carries the money out, and the only one where a same-day intervention is possible. Have the transaction IDs ready.
2. Copy every destination wallet address and transaction hash. They are in your wallet history or your exchange's transaction log. Nobody can trace a case with no addresses in it.
3. Screenshot everything before it goes. Full WhatsApp and Telegram threads, not crops. The profile that contacted you. The website. The dashboard showing your supposed profits. These platforms disappear within days.
4. Tell the exchange you sent from, and give them the receiving address so compliance can flag it.
5. Make the report — the police station, and 292.

Where to report

Ghana Police Service — the Cyber Crime Unit at the CID

The Cyber Crime Unit sits inside the Criminal Investigation Department, runs a digital forensics laboratory, and covers ordinary offences like fraud committed with a digital device — not only hacking.

The part worth knowing: the Service has reorganised that unit and decentralised it to all 25 regional commands. A crypto fraud reported at a regional command no longer has to be escorted to Accra before anyone with the right training sees it.

Go in person. Ghana Police has no online crime-reporting channel — the eServices portal is for clearance certificates and vetting, and the website's own feedback form offers only domestic incidents and inquiries. The unit names CID Headquarters in Accra as the place to walk in, and the Police Helpline, 18555 or 191, for guidance on making a complaint. Take your documentation printed and on a flash drive. A statement that says only "I was scammed online" will not carry an investigation; the addresses, the hashes and the timeline turn it into a case.

The Cyber Security Authority — 292, around the clock

The CSA was established under the Cybersecurity Act, 2020 (Act 1038). It runs the Cybercrime and Cybersecurity Incident Reporting Points of Contact around the clock:

• Call or text 292
• WhatsApp 0501603111
• [email protected]
• The form at csa.gov.gh/report, where Fraud is one of the categories
• The CSA GHANA mobile app

Reports go to CERT-GH for triage and further investigation. The Authority recorded 305 online fraud cases in the first quarter of 2025 alone, up from 194 the year before, with losses rising from GH₵2.4 million to GH₵4.4 million.

Be clear about what this channel is. CERT-GH triages, mitigates and coordinates, and assists law enforcement. It does not prosecute. Calling 292 is the fastest thing you can do on the day, and it is not a criminal complaint. Do both.

EOCO — for the organised schemes

The Economic and Organised Crime Office investigates economic and organised crime — money laundering, prohibited cyber activity, tax fraud — and, on the Attorney-General's authority, prosecutes it and recovers the proceeds.

EOCO takes reports at eoco.gov.gh/resources/report-a-crime, and the form is more useful than most: it asks you to classify yourself as informant, whistleblower, victim or anonymous, and its categories include Internet Fraud, romance scam and bank fraud. Pick victim. Its 24-hour hotline is 0800 911 911 and its email [email protected], and it has regional offices.

This is the destination when the scheme is organised — a platform that took money from many people, a Ponzi structure, a corporate shell. For a single loss it sits behind the police report.

What documentation to gather

• Every destination wallet address you sent to
• The transaction hash (TXID) of each transfer, with date and time
• Mobile money transaction IDs and any bank transfer receipts
• Uncropped screenshots of the full conversations
• The exact URL of the platform, profile, WhatsApp group or advert
• The names, phone numbers, MoMo numbers and handles used to contact you
• A written timeline: first contact, each payment, last contact

Check before you pay — the SEC's lists

The Securities and Exchange Commission publishes the checks that would have caught most of these platforms.

Under the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, 2025 (Act 1154), the SEC opened a Virtual Asset Sandbox in March 2026 and published the full list of twenty admitted participants that August. Alongside it sit a list of entities operating without a licence, a licensee directory at licensees.sec.gov.gh, and public notices naming specific schemes — in July 2026 it named Yepbit Exchange and Bonchat.

Read the sandbox list for what it is: a supervised pilot granted while the SEC finalises activity-specific licensing, not a full licence. A platform on none of these lists has no standing with the Commission. Report a suspicious platform on the SEC's toll-free line 0800 100 065 or at [email protected].

Why the Bank of Ghana is not the place

This is the most common wrong turn in Ghana, and an understandable one — the money went out on MoMo, and the Bank of Ghana regulates mobile money.

But look at how the complaint route is built. The Bank's published procedure says a customer who is not satisfied with a product or service must complain to that bank first, and escalate only if the answer is unsatisfactory. Its Investigation and Consumer Reporting Office receives complaints against financial institutions. That machinery is pointed at the conduct of a regulated institution, not at a fraudster, and cannot pursue one. The Bank's new Virtual Assets Department licenses providers alongside the SEC and the Financial Intelligence Centre — supervision of an industry, not redress for you.

The same trap sits on the SEC's side: its formal complaint form demands proof you already complained to the market operator and waited thirty days, which assumes the operator is licensed. A scam platform is not a market operator, so that route dead-ends.

Can I get my money back?

Sometimes. A great deal less often than the internet implies.

It turns on one question: did the funds reach a service with compliance obligations — a MoMo operator, an exchange, a payment processor — before they scattered? If they did, and there is a filed report to attach, there is a path. Through mixers, or into services that cooperate with nobody, almost none.

No one can quote you a percentage honestly. Anyone who does it over the phone, having seen not one transaction, is selling something.

Beware of "fund recovery" offers

Some weeks after the loss, someone offers to recover it. Sometimes they claim to be lawyers, sometimes a contact at EOCO or inside an exchange. They want a fee upfront, a "clearance charge", or remote access to your phone.

It is the same network, or somebody who bought the victim list:

• They approached you, not the reverse
• Payment is required before anything happens
• The result is guaranteed
• Inside contacts are claimed

Every channel on this page is free. No government body in Ghana asks for an advance payment to return your funds. Anyone claiming to be from the CSA, EOCO or the police and asking for money is running the second scam.

Why record the address publicly

A criminal case moves at the speed of one. A public record works the same afternoon.

Post the wallet address, the hash and the website to Chainabuse and that entry becomes visible to exchange compliance teams, to investigators, and to anyone searching that address before transferring. Chainabuse is free, open to anyone, and groups reports against the same address — so scattered losses become a pattern that can be seen.

Very often the person it protects is not you. It is whoever searches that address next week and finds the warning in time.

Frequently asked questions

1. Where do I report a crypto scam in Ghana?

In person at a police station, where the case goes to the Cyber Crime Unit at the Criminal Investigation Department — now present in all 25 regional commands. Also report to the Cyber Security Authority by calling or texting 292, and to EOCO if the scheme is organised.

2. What is 292?

The Cyber Security Authority's 24-hour Cybercrime and Cybersecurity Incident Reporting point of contact. Call or text 292, or use WhatsApp on 0501603111 or [email protected]. It is the fastest channel there is, and not a substitute for the police report.

3. Can I report a crypto scam to the police online?

No. Ghana Police has no online crime-reporting portal — its eServices site handles clearance certificates and vetting. The Police Helpline on 18555 or 191 can tell you how to make a complaint, but you go to a station with your documentation printed and on a flash drive.

4. Can the Bank of Ghana reverse a mobile money scam?

No. Its complaints procedure challenges a bank or payment provider's own conduct and requires you to complain to that institution first. Call your MoMo provider immediately, then the police and the CSA.

5. The platform said it was in the SEC sandbox — was it licensed?

No. Sandbox admission under the Virtual Asset Service Providers Act, 2025 (Act 1154) is a supervised pilot granted while the SEC finalises activity-specific licensing. Check the published participant list and the list of entities operating without a licence on sec.gov.gh.

6. Is it worth reporting if I lost a small amount?

Yes. The CSA recorded 305 online fraud cases in a single quarter of 2025, and these schemes collect from many people through the same accounts.

7. Is reporting to Chainabuse the same as reporting to the police?

No — do both. The police report opens the criminal case in Ghana. The Chainabuse report makes the wallet address visible immediately to exchanges and investigators wherever the money goes next.