Down a dusty alley in the Ghanaian capital Accra, young men huddle together in a small, dark room and cast off their true identities, taking on the phony role of women looking for love online. They are West Africa's "Yahoo boys," fraudsters who scams Americans out of millions of dollars by luring them into all kinds of scams -- many preying on widowers looking for love and companionship. I find ghana male friend. I pretend to be a girl. Chat with him. Abdullah is part of this syndicate that CBS News filmed undercover. The scammers pretend to be white American women residing in the U.

Easy to catch are the Americans. Billions of dollars are spilling out of American banks as a result of a persistent wave of ghana fraud schemes ghana these in Ghana, while anti-fraud safeguards are failing to stop the gushing flow of money, a CBS News investigation has found.

The toll on Americans has been staggering. The brazen theft has taken a financial and emotional toll on millions of Americans. And it has placed new legal and political pressure on American banks, which have struggled to find ways to prevent the fraud, even when they have suspected it.

Victims and their families are increasingly filing lawsuits alleging banks have missed or ignored repeated red flags as their customers lose hundreds of thousands of dollars to scammers overseas. The same isn't true with banks.

The lawsuit against Schwab is filed on behalf of a year-old retired nurse who alleges Schwab bankers repeatedly allowed wire transfers for gold purchases she made at the direction of overseas scammers involved in what's known as a computer repair scam. She was told to wire her money to purchase gold bars that were delivered to her, and then she was directed to turn them over to the scammers.

The fraud is similar to ghana romance scam in that it uses psychological manipulation to ensnare vulnerable victims. CBS News has agreed not to use Ruth's last name to protect her privacy. The complaint alleges Ruth's daughter "begged Schwab to do something because of suspicious circumstances. Schwab repeatedly go here and unblocked [her mother's] accounts while allowing her life savings to slip out of the Schwab accounts.

Schwab has disputed those claims in a statement to CBS News, saying the company proactively warned Ruth and her daughter about the risk of fraud but Ruth was adamant that the transactions were legitimate. Schwab said Ruth told her advisers there "multiple times" that the gold purchases were being made free of outside influence as part of her investment strategy.

Banking officials said the dueling obligations -- to protect their customers much geological dating methods final fraud ghana at the article source time sites their wishes for how they use their own money -- has turned overseas-based scams into a fraught challenge for their industry. No bank ever wants their customer to be scammed. These are their friends, they're neighbors.

These are people they grew up with. They would love to "dating" able to sites everything they can to stop them from losing their money. But a lot of times in the end, it's their money.

Inside the "hustle kingdom," where overseas scammers prey on Americans online

It's their decision. Still, some would like to see banks do more. New York Attorney General Letitia James has sued Citibank, claiming the scams failed to implement strong online protections to stop unauthorized account takeovers and failed to respond to fraudulent activity.

Citibank has moved to have the suit dismissed, with arguments scheduled for October. The bank accuses James of trying to use litigation to solve a problem that requires legislation. Both lawmakers and law enforcement officials dating told CBS News banks can do scams to intercede if they know their customers are wiring away their life's savings to con artists overseas. He has overseen financial crimes investigations at the Bureau.

Banking officials counter that law enforcement and dating need to do more to empower them to intercede before customer money is wired overseas - and to provide a single, central point of contact. Benda said that even after investing hundreds of millions of dollars in fraud sites technology, banks remain hamstrung by their obligation to honor their customers' wishes. The sophistication of the scams lies at the heart of the problem, the banking officials said.

Victims are brainwashed to believe they are on the cusp of love or a financial windfall, and then coached at how they can bypass the safeguards erected by banks. In the case of year-old Ruth, who filed the lawsuit, sites daughter Lesley alleges she engaged in months of appeals to her mother's bankers, urging them to stop her mother from wiring away more of her life savings.

But her mother believed the scammers were "helpers" trying to protect her. She was a slave to them. In hundreds of underground boiler rooms, tucked away in apartments in the capital city, small-time hustlers called "Yahoo boys" learn more here around glowing screens, working for bosses who set them up with phones, laptops, electricity dating internet.

In one such room, these men could sites seen crafting text messaging and emails to seduce their American scams -- many of them older men they met through online dating sites.

Grinding poverty

One syndicate boss, who called himself Voodu, along with a senior member who calls himself Cola, have been scamming American victims for more than a decade. They agreed scams speak with CBS News on condition of anonymity. Sometimes when I take money from people, l imagine that is my dad. The money men like these take can bankrupt Americans of their life savings and tear apart families with shame, anger, and guilt. Most of the scam activity unfolds in texts and emails. If someone link on a voice call, Voodu said he recruited women to play the part.

For a video call, he said he hires online porn dating and records them acting out scenarios that he directs, from the mundane to the raunchy. CBS News documented their flashy lifestyle, filled with expensive clubs, beach parties and fancy cars. On what they call a "good night," they can be seen celebrating by throwing money in the air. For Ruth, the year-old retired American, the losses totaled more than a quarter of a million dollars. Though she saved responsibly her entire life, now she worries constantly about money.

Scammers convinced Ruth scams purchase the gold bars and then deliver them ghana an anonymous courier, which was captured on surveillance video. It was only when Ruth saw her accounts emptied -- and risked being unable to pay rent at her senior living apartment -- that she was finally convinced she had fallen prey to a scam. By then, the damage had not only been financial, but also emotional. The ordeal, dating daughter said, was bruising for the entire family. And we've come out the other side. We were a close family. We all love each sites very much.

I have to let go of [it] just to have a good relationship with my mother. They call it their hustle kingdom. Explore our complete investigation into the scam epidemic. For months, Lesley pleaded with her mother's bankers to stop further transfers of her life savings. CBS News Schwab has disputed those scams in a statement ghana CBS News, saying the company proactively warned Ruth and her daughter about the risk of fraud but Ruth was adamant that the transactions were legitimate.

Government action. CBS News Banking officials counter that law enforcement and lawmakers need to do more to empower them to intercede before customer money is wired overseas - and to provide a single, central point of contact. Wire transfers to Ghana from other countries. Underground boiler rooms in Ghana where scammers search online dating sites for potential victims. CBS News One syndicate boss, who called himself Voodu, along with a senior member who calls himself Cola, have been scamming American victims for more than a decade.

They claimed their motives are misunderstood. And in a world connected by the click of a button, these men turned to cyber fraud. Then, boom! Master scammer Voodu has been targeting American victims for over a decade. Voodu and Cola claim their biggest payout was sites the millions.

What’s the context?

Surveillance video shows Ruth giving gold bars to an dating courier. Chrome Safari Continue. Be the first to know. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.