Ghana scam targets Valley

Nov. 7, 2006

By MARY AMES

Frontiersman

MAT-SU - When the men who said they were from Ghana ordered 40 sheets of glass, they sounded almost legitimate, but they weren't smooth enough to fool Tami Doramus.

Doramus, business manager at Custom Glass, said the calls started Oct. 19. Ultimately, three men called Custom Glass, giving the names Cecil Morren, Ken Morren, and the Rev. Able Frank. The Morrens ordered 40 sheets of 30-inch by 30-inch 1/8-inch glass, and gave Doramus a credit card with local numbers for a bill that came to about $1,275. The credit card was declined.

Doramus, who said she's been at this business for 20 years, knew something wasn't right. She called other glass companies in the Valley and found the same men were targeting all but one of the residential and commercial glass companies in the area.

On Oct. 25, the men still were calling and faxing Custom Glass, wanting to know if their credit card numbers were working, and wanting Doramus to send a money order to a shipping company to handle the cost of freight. Cecil Morren planned to pick up the glass himself, he wrote in a fax, but his wife was having a baby in Canada and he had to change his plans.

&#8220So i want u to be shipping the glasses am ordering from ur shop to my new company in Ghana,” he wrote, verbatim.

Doramus wanted to keep the men on the hook long enough to land them in hot water. She traced the phone numbers they were using to Montgomery, Ala., and discovered they were using the local address of 1900 N. Basin St. The different shipping companies to which the men told her to send the money orders didn't exist, she said.

Someone could write a book on all the scams coming out of Africa these days, said Doug Sonerholm, investigator with the Wasilla police.

&#8220There are literally thousands, with hundreds of variations on each one,” Sonerholm said. &#8220They are looking for anyone gullible enough to believe they can make a bunch of money by doing very little.”

Although the scams are illegal, a scam has to be prosecuted in the country, and the state, where it started, he said.

&#8220The problem is, if it originates out of country, it's almost impossible to do anything about it,” he said.

These scams are difficult enough to try to prosecute when they originate from another state, Sonerholm said. But Ghana is a developing nation, like most countries on Africa's west coast, and it doesn't have the police or prosecutors to pursue these cases.

Doramus worried about her business colleagues, not because they wanted to make a lot of money, but because they would be inclined to help someone out. She does that on a daily basis, she said.

&#8220I try to find the least expensive way to take care of things for my customers,” she said. &#8220It keeps the legwork down for me, and the cost down for them.”

The men, whoever they really are, were persistent. When Doramus told the reverend she'd already received the order for 40 sheets of 30-by-30-inch glass, Frank quickly changed his order to 80 sheets of 15-by-15-inch glass, she said.

&#8220It came out to about the same amount of money, $1,275,” she said.

Another ploy the scammers used to contact Doramus was to use relay operators - normally used by hearing impaired callers. One call was interrupted by a supervisor who wanted Doramus to be aware they thought it was a scam caller, she said.

Doramus contacted the FBI, as well as Wasilla police and Alaska State Troopers, she said. She was told there was nothing they could do, she said.

Contact Mary Ames at

352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com.