The Controller
The Controller (Pseudonymize) is 30years old and married with 1 kid. The Controller lives in an extended family house and still working on his own house. The controller has been in the scamming business for 5 years.. The controller started scamming after completing his first degree without any job. The interview was conducted in a restaurant near the Controller’s house 
The Controller opinion on illegality and immorality and their difference
The Controller believe that illegal activities are activities that has to do with things that are punishable by the law and immoralities to be something that his religion, Islam forbid him. However he also believe that some illegal things and immoral things are sometimes related. He gave an example of rape, stealing, and killing as the commonalities between illegality and immorality. He also use the case of lying to differentiate between illegality and immorality. Whereas he mentioned that, it is not illegal to lie - making reference to how politicians lie during elections, he argued that lying is immoral. For example:
“Bro, ok, it depends the situation but for me I think that sometimes illegal is the same as immoral but sometimes too illegal is different from immoral. The reason why I am saying this is because illegal thing is something is police arrest people for and immoral things are things that Islam say is haram..but sometimes the police or the illegal thing is also haram. Example like when you rape or kill somebody, the police will be looking for you to arrest you and also is haram too… ok, something like lying example, is haram but is not illegal.. I have never hear that police arrest somebody because he tell lies..but is haram to lie…so it depends the situation. Sometimes illegal and immoral are the same and sometimes they are not the same..”
 He also added that  corruption can make people to go unpunished when they do illegal things and that corruption cannot make a person to go unpunished if the person commit immoral act. He explained that for immoral act, only God can forgive it and that politicians, police officers, and law makers can only forgive illegal activities. Another thing he mentioned is that, something are illegal and not immoral and he gave an example of smoking wed. According to him, smoking wed can get a person arrested by police but he doesn’t think that smoking wed is immoral. 
“Something can also be illegal and not haram. Example, when you read the quran, you will not see any place that they say that smoking wed is haram but police are arresting people because they smoke…wait, if you want to see the difference you can take for example, when somebody kill somebody, the person can just connect with politicians and they will arrest him but if somebody kill another person, politicians cannot save the person from God punishment. Only his prayers and repentance can save him from God.. That is also something the different between illegal and haram or immoral.. Simple, immoral is equal to haram and illegal equal to police arrest hahahaah”….
The Controller opinion on following to law and moral codes
The Controller believe that it is important to always following the moral codes but he doesn’t think obeying the law all the time is important. According to him, the law is made by human beings and that the law can be wrong and that if a person thinks the law is wrong the person can choose not to obey that law. He made reference to the case of smoking wed. He  said that it is illegal to smoke wed and he thinks it is not important to obey such law. According to him, if a person has social connections with politicians, he can choose not be obey the law and nothing will happen to him. He also said that, if a person has a lot of money, the person can choose not to obey the law because he can always bride police officers and go unpunished. On the other hand, The Controller thinks that it is important to always follow the immoral codes, believing that nobody can bride God. He thinks that immoral act can never go unpunished until God forgive that person. 
“For me, I think that people should try to not do haram too much but for the illegal, I don’t think is important… because the illegal thing is law and some people make them, and you can break the law and nothing will happen to you, if you know politicians or you have big money… Yes, you can just bride police or use a politician and you will not be arrested… to be frank, for me, I think this law is just useless.. because wed is good for people so I don’t understand why is illegal… For instance, when you smoke, it makes your brain to work faster and it can make you stop thinking bad bad things…”
In terms of breaking the laws and morality, The Controller mentioned that, people break the laws and the moral codes because of the need to survive. In terms of morality, he holds that, though it is important to always obey the moral codes but it is impossible to behave morally all the time because sometimes survival depends on immoral actions. He gave an example of scamming and lying.  According to him, most of the scammers can’t find jobs and they need to survive and that scamming is the option for them to survive. To him, scamming is immoral but people do it because they need to survive. In terms of breaking the law, he mentioned that sometimes people break the law because they don’t see it to be important or they break the law because it is necessary. He gave an example of getting admission to a university. According to  him, bribery is illegal but sometimes people bribe before they can get admission to universities. 
“Like I said bro, this law is not important so if you think is not important, you can just break it. Its really stupid..But when you talk about the haram, bro, life is difficult and sometimes you have to survive. If you don’t do this haram things sometimes, you can’t survive…so people just do haram because they have survive..but some people are just bad people or they don’t believe in God, so they can do anything haram…Example, this scam thing we are doing, its haram, I know it, but I still do it because no job and I need to survive.. there are so many things bro…example, somebody just do haram thing because he want to enjoy, like having sex with different different girls….”
The recent immoral and illegal dealing of The Controller and his view on scamming
According to The Controller, illegal and immoral dealings are not something recent for him. According him, his business line is immoral and he does illegal things too. According to him, although there are some immoral things he does such as lying and sex, he opines that scamming is the biggest immoral thing that he’s always. According to him, he is not proud that he is scamming but he has no option than to depend on the scamming to survive. Apart from seeing scamming as immoral, The Controller don’t believe that scamming is illegal – arguing that its another way of making money and that police don’t care about scamming. 
“Bro, you also know that scam is my thing and its haram. I agree.. I know that scam is haram but is not illegal…bro, in the scam we don’t steal anybody or kill anybody in this country.. do do our business, we make the money, help ourselves and our family.. for me, scam is just business…its not illegal. Can’t you see that the police have stop worrying us? Because they now know that scam is good business and they also enjoy from our business…this time, police respect us more than even teachers, or even doctors.. we give them money.. ok, for example, in the scam, we lie and talk money from white people, that is haram because we are lying to them and we are taking their money and deceiving them. The only thing I do illegal is smoking and doing some small drugs…”
According to him, the illegal things he does are that he smokes wed and do drugs that can help him to stay awake at night so that he can chat with his clients. According to him, he will be very mad if someone lies to him and take his property and that he knows that lying to clients and taking their money is bad because he can imagine how clients feel when they discover the fraud. He mentioned that he tries to spend  the money he gets from scamming on his family and people around him, hoping that God will forgive him for that. He also mentioned that, when he gets enough money from scamming, he is going to stop because he believes that if he dies as a scammer, God will not forgive him and that he will go to hell. He also mentioned that, it is important for him to stop scamming before he’s son grows up because he doesn’t want his son to grow up and become a scammer like him. 
“Bro, this scam thing, I will stop it Insha’Allah. When I get enough money because I don’t want to die a scammer.. because I know very well that if I die a scammer I will go to hell. Bro, you can also help us with some prayers so that we can get big time money, invest the money and stop this scam… if I don’t stop this scam, my son is growing up, he will learn it from me, and I don’t want that to happen…Bro, I swear, this scamming thing is worrying me too much..”
The Controller reaction to his client during scamming
The Controller believe that a scammer cannot be successful if he cares about the personal life stories of their client. According to him, he stopped asking about the personal stories of clients after realizing that those personal stories affects him. According to him, prior to avoiding personal stories, he was always encountered with the feeling  of uncontrollable guilt when he finds out that his clients also have some challenges. The Controller have it that no matter how a person is wicked, it is difficult to defraud somebody after knowing that those people also have some troubles in their lives. According him, whenever he started collecting personal information about his clients and finds out that those people are also facing challenges such as financial problems, social exclusions, and discriminations he cannot continue scamming such people. Because of that he decided to stop collecting his clients personal stories and concentrate on talking about love and sex. 
“Bro, is hard business. Because of the bad feelings, I have stop asking client about their life because some you know somethings about them, you can not continue scamming them. Some clients are also suffering like us but they are just trying to sacrifice for their love. Some clients don’t have money, they are just trying hard to find the money for you. Some of them even, nobody like them, people don’t want to talk to  them, they are just sad people like us. So if you find out all this things, bro, its hard to scam them again…so, yeah, you mind can change about your client.. Even sometimes, you wish it was real and not scam because the person can be a wonderful person…. Like kind, good, and everything….”

According to him, he always advises those under him to stop requiring personal life stories of clients in order for them to minimize the guilt. He gave a story of a USA woman who had a medical condition and had to visit the hospital frequently but didn’t have enough. According to him, he was taking money from this woman and when he realized that the woman had such a condition, he decided to stop scamming her because he didn’t want to hurt someone who is already hurting. According to him, He finally confessed to the woman and told her the truth about the scam. According to him, the woman requested that he showed his real identity to her, of which he did. According to him, the woman forgave him and asked him not to continue with scamming. He said anytime he remembers about the woman, he feels guilty even though she forgave him.
“Bro, this woman was very kind, and didn’t have enough money.. Because anytime I request money, it will take her some to get the money for me.. so, the day I requested from her and she told me that she didn’t have money and that she was trying to get some money to go to hospital, I felt so guilty bro… when I ask her, she told me that she is fighting cancer for years and that she don’t have enough money..bro, this woman just was selfless, despite that she was trying and sending me some small small money…. I told her the truth and she forgive me and told me not to do scam again….I regrated bro too much..”
The Controller opinion on who can be his client. Only whites, or blacks or even people he knows 
According to The Controller, he doesn’t have any clients in Ghana and that he could never scam anybody in Ghana because he believes that Ghanaians are poor and even if a Ghanaian is rich, he can’t scam that person. To him, it is easy for White people to forgive and that scamming white people is better because they can easily forgive you. However, he said that a Ghanaian will never forgive when you scam him. So he decides not to scam Ghanaians because he fears that local clients will not forgive him and he might go to hell when he dies.
“Oh bro, for me I don’t scam blacks or Ghanaian…How much will the person give you? Maybe the person is also suffering like you.. Scamming a poor person is not good bro.. plus this white people they can easily forgive you when you scam them… Is better to scam a white people who can forgive you than to scam a black who will never forgive you… Because if they forgive you, God will also forgive you....bro, this work is hard, you need to scam the person and ask for forgiveness. Sometimes they forgive and somethings too, they don’t…”

 Meanwhile, he mentioned that some still scam Ghanaian but he believes that only new scammers do that. He mentioned that immediately new scammers get to understand the business they will stop scamming local people and concentrate on white people. He also mention that serious scammers don’t even think of scamming Ghanaians or black because a real scammer can’t get enough money from local clients. The Controller also says his neighbors and other blacks are his brothers and that it is not good to scam your brother. He added that scamming a black person can be equated to self-scam. He said that the reason for scamming is to support each other to survive and that scamming your brother is wrong.
“Bro, just imaging me scamming you, is it not scamming myself? Because you are my brother and I have to support you instead of scamming you. In Ghana here, we are all brothers and sisters because we are all suffering…So if I scam a black people it means that I am scamming myself…. Even them bro, whether Nigeria, Togo, Mali, we are all suffering.. the same suffering ahhaah.. its not funny but what can we do?”….