Maybe Scamming Isn’t That Bad…

A client of mine who had lived in the US since childhood was getting a GPS tracker installed by my team some years ago. It was an early Saturday morning, and he had just arrived in Ghana after a long time away. From the look of things, he probably touched down less than 24 hours before he reached out to us.

As the installation was ongoing and my technician was busy tearing apart his Mercedes G63, Mr. American and I started kicking it. We spoke about a few things and, for a middle-aged man and a 22-year-old me at the time, we actually had way more in common than you’d think. We both loved dark-skinned women, coffee, and we disliked the Ghanaian government at the time. I could genuinely see myself in this man decades from now.

Random image because I felt like it

He spoke to me about how important a GPS tracker was to him and how surprised he was that people in the country were comfortable driving vehicles without GPS tracking. In his eyes, it was insane. As much as I agreed with him, I also felt he was being a little extra, maybe trying to encourage me as a young man in the business, one he seemed to have taken a liking to.

The installation was done, so I said goodbye and headed to my next client.

This uncle was different. I felt like I was being interviewed for a job even though he had called to book the installation. I later learned it was his daughter who had forced his hand. He kept asking how important it really was to have a tracker, with an annoyance in his voice that made it feel like my technician and I were trying to rob him.

He kept saying he had owned cars for decades and all he’d ever needed was a good alarm, so all this new-age technology made very little sense to him. Just a few miles from where I stood at that moment, my earlier client, who was actually a little older than this one, had shown far more appreciation for the service. I couldn’t understand this extreme duality.

Another random image

And I kept thinking about it for quite some time. About how everything is contextual.

In high school, I had girlfriends who complained about being approached by boys trying to get with them, and I could tell it was a genuine concern. I understood it to a point because girls approached me too, and more often than not, they weren’t girls I liked. So I thought I got it. Honestly, at the time, I felt they were being a bit dramatic. Like yeah, it’s a problem, but how big of a problem could it really be?

Fast forward to college. I was at an art show with the boys, and like most outings with them, nothing was properly planned. We kept losing ourselves and finding each other again in random places.

In one of those moments, a guy who looked familiar held my hand and said he recognized me. Most times when I meet people out, they seem to know me from situations I have no recollection of. My memory for people who aren’t constants in my life is basically nonexistent, so I usually just play along to avoid extending an already uncomfortable interaction.

He said he had lost my number, so I gave it to him and kept it moving. I met up with the boys shortly after and we headed home.

When this “old friend” started texting me, he went straight to the point. He found me attractive and wanted to be in a relationship with me. It was one of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life.

And it had nothing to do with homophobia. The approach just felt aggressive in a way I wasn’t used to. In that moment, I fully understood the girls from high school. From that day till now, I’ve been obsessed with one word: context.

He actually sold it twice lmaoo

What was this piece about again? Oh yeah. Scamming isn’t that bad… blah blah. Right, let’s get to it.

What all these moments taught me is that nothing exists in isolation, everything makes sense only in context.

The man from the US couldn’t imagine driving without a GPS tracker because theft was real to him, while the older client dismissed it because it had never been his reality. Just like I once thought girls were exaggerating about harassment until I experienced it myself.

For the average Ghanaian living in Ghana, many problems don’t feel worth worrying about, especially when they haven’t been directly affected. Scamming people abroad feels distant. After all, it’s not their money being stolen.

But put it in context. Mobile money fraud.

Ask them to imagine if it was their family member who got scammed by one of those fraudsters and lost all their savings. That’s when it clicks.

Context doesn’t just shape opinions, it creates empathy.

So maybe scamming isn’t that bad, only because you don’t understand the context.

Or maybe you’re just a terrible person. That’s fine too

Getting scammed is a near death experience

If you’ve read all the way to this point…you’re far too kind. You could’ve been reading anything else in the world, but you chose this. And I appreciate that.