British Widow Dies in Ghana While Seeking Lost Scam Funds

A 69-year-old British widow, Janet Fordham, has died in Ghana after travelling to the country in an attempt to recover money she allegedly lost to a long-running romance fraud scheme.

An inquest heard that Fordham, a retired housekeeper from Honiton, Devon in the UK, was targeted by multiple online scammers between 2017 and 2022. The fraudsters reportedly posed as soldiers and diplomats, persuading her to send them large sums of money through bank transfers and cash withdrawals.

The scams are said to have cost Fordham between £800,000 and £1 million, leaving her without her home and life savings. Despite repeated warnings from relatives and police, she continued to believe she could recover the lost funds. Similar cases have raised concerns globally about the rise of online financial deception and the emotional damage caused to victims.

In October 2022, she was contacted by a man identified only as Kofi, who claimed to be a doctor and promised to help retrieve the stolen money. She later travelled to Ghana to meet him.

On February 14, 2023, Fordham was travelling as a passenger in a car driven by Kofi when the vehicle crashed on the road from Accra to the Oti Region. She reportedly died from head injuries sustained in the accident.

The tragic case has once again highlighted the devastating emotional and financial toll of online romance scams, especially on vulnerable victims. It also comes at a time when authorities are intensifying warnings about cross-border fraud networks and suspicious online relationships.