Nii instructed Bruno how to use Skype with ManyCam, which replaces a real webcam. ManyCam can use either an Internet image or a prerecorded video. Nii recommended the latter. Easily available in Ghana, they save the scammer the time and trouble searching the Internet. Professionals make these short videos that appear to show someone on webcam talking to you.

“So,” Nii continued, “I get plenty plenty videos I upload to ManyCam and I name the files so not to get confused.” He and his sakawa colleagues almost invariably used the accepted pidgin English of the streets when talking to each other. “When I call the man on Skype, what he go see is some fine woman smiling at him. I tell him say my computer microphone no dey work well, so make we type instead. And I tell him say because of Ghana network the image make slow compared to the typing. So, for example, if the mugu say something serious but the woman on the Skype is smiling, he go ask why she make smile when he dey tell her something serious.”

“Oh, okay,” Bruno said, nodding.

“Make you no spend plenty time on Skype”—Nii warned—“like maybe just some five minutes, then you cut the video and text the mugu tell him say the network is bad so you can’t do Skype or WhatsApp video. But you can still send him some pictures. If he want naked pictures too, we have to send them. Also, we get women who can answer the phone for us, or if not, then we don’t pick the call and later we text him to say the network is down.”

“But for that man Mr. Gordon, why you no put white girl for profile instead of Ghanaian one?” Bruno asked.

Nii shook his head. “Dat one be different kind target. This mugu no dey want white girl, you understand me? He like black woman, African woman. If you want to catch a dog, you bring meat, not grass. Wait, make I show you something.”

On his Samsung—the latest model—Nii pulled up a Facebook page called BWWM—Black Women, White Men. He scrolled. A white American man and his Ghanaian wife were decked out in kente outfits. All the couples were beautiful in some way, and their children even more so.

“This is how you can use Facebook,” Nii explained. “Look at the likes for this pic. Click on the men who have liked the pic and see if you go get one who is single and looking for a woman. That’s who you will try your hand, but first you go check his profile to see what kind of job he has. He should be someone who get plenty money. Then, you go message him—not as yourself, oo. I mean using the fake profile you made with the photo of a beautiful African woman. You take a screenshot of the same woman you use for the Skype. Then, you get to know him, and then after some small time pass, you start asking for money, and then more and more.”