If you are a male, elderly and use an MTN number prefixed with 024-4, you are likely to identify with my concerns in my epistle for today. However, if you are not on the social media WhatsApp platform, you will miss the fun. But, truth be told, it is not funny at all.

As a journalist I get to scour social media platforms for news gossips, though not all things on these platforms are edifying. My favourite is Facebook where I endeavour to engage ‘friends’ in intellectual discourse. I limit myself to just a few categories. I do not accept ‘friendship’ from people who do not post their photograph profiles and those who use unreal names for identity.

I am quick to ‘unfriend’ people whose requests I accept yet do not communicate with me. I have noticed people with up to 46,000 friends on Facebook and wonder why it is so. I do not know if they present them as part of their curriculum vitae (CV). I have shut down my Instagram account as I consider it a ‘madhouse’ and follow no one on Twitter.

Now, since the beginning of this year, I have been assailed by as many as 18 girls on Whatsapp; girls who are not on my contact list. They post profile pictures that qualify them for beauty contests any day.

Their modus operandi is a simple ‘Hi…’ When you respond in like manner, she introduces herself and tells you where she lives, then proceeds to ask your name. If you do not respond to the initial ‘hi’ many of them let go. Some wait for a couple of days and reconnect.

Not all their identities are captured by the Truecaller app, but I have devised a way to get their identities. In all cases, save one, they turn up to be who they claim they are. The one exception was one who claimed to be a student at the Nursing Training School in Koforidua and said she wanted a relationship with me but was short of funds to pay her fees. She needed my help. I told her my niece taught at that school so I would get to her through my relative. All her response to this was “Fool,” and deleted our chat immediately thereafter.

Anytime I ask how they got my contact, their answer mostly is that they get it from WhatsApp. I give them the benefit of the doubt, but what runs through is their lack of communication skills. How are you? I’m a beautician. I’m fine, you? These are the only way they converse.

Then after a week or two, they ask you to send them money to pay medical bills for their ailing mother; never their father. I tell them in plain words that I am unable to help, first, because I do not know who they are, whether their demand is genuine and go on to ask if they look for people on Whatsapp to help their ailing relatives.

One, who claimed to be a “fashion and designer,” (whatever that means) living in Nzema, wanted to visit me in Accra after saying ‘hi…’ for four days and wanted me to send her GHc500 for transport. Seeing through this, I asked her to find her way to the capital and I would pay her transport fare. That was the last I heard from her.

I own multiple numbers from all the Telcos, but why these girls only target MTN baffles me. Even with MTN, I have prefixes 024-2, 054 and 055, but it is only the 024-4 they contact me on in spite of the fact that all the others are also on Whatsapp. Or am I the only one these girls take a fancy to?

These are really girls at war. A bold one asked to be my friend on Facebook. Seeing she was friends with many people from my family, church and friends, I accepted her friendship. Her profile painted a picture of someone who graduated from the University of Ghana, lives somewhere in the capital and is into beauty therapy.

A couple of months later, she asked if I was on Whatsapp. I gave her one of my numbers. She asked what I did and I asked her to check my profile on LinkedIn, Google or Facebook. I asked if she wanted my CV. She did not know what a CV was. That was proof she never went to Legon.

One morning, she sent the usual greetings and, out of the blue came, “When can I make love with U?” I almost felt giddy. Then I called my brother in Koforidua to find out about this girl. He said he had many friends on Facebook he hardly communicated with, adding he was rarely on that platform lately. My other friends could not remember her. My brother cautioned me against a possible blackmail.

Later, my response to her was, “Really? But we hardly know each other and U don’t know if I’m married or not. Secondly, I’ve seen that U are friends with two of my brothers on Facebook and very good friends of mine too. And I don’t have relationships without telling my siblings bcoz of my position in society, so I’m at a loss as to how this can work out.” Unfazed by my response, she shot back that she had feelings for me.

How girls can spray their pheromones all over social media befuddles the mind. When I returned to check her out on Facebook, it turned out that she has many accounts to her name, and her photographs are on full display.And all these girls are below 30, far younger than my youngest daughter who turns 36 today.

I don’t know if the economic situation in the landis what drives these girls into this rather aggressive mode of soliciting sustenance or they are just there to fleece lascivious or lecherous men who might be game for their escapades. 

A lady friend gave me a perspective on this.  She tells me that the young men of their generation, to start with, are not as romantic as the elderly ones. Next, all they think of is sex, sex and more sex. To them sex is coterminous with love; nothing more, nothing less. She adds that young women are looking for love and affection and the elderly men fit the bill.

Why then do these girls make financial demands? My friend did not have a ready answer to this, but surmised that some might be driven first by financial considerations. “They are likely in the category of desperados who want money at any cost,” she quipped.

But there is one who claims she wants an elderly, but experienced, man to take her under his wings and teach her what life is all about. She says she is ready to introduce her ‘mentor’ to her family in case doubts arise. As espoused by Rev. Dr. F. K. Fiawoo, a pet snake may appear harmless in its infancy, “…but the tendency to prey upon man grows in proportion. And soon you have at home a ferocious animal with all elements of atrocity fully developed.”

One other thing I do is to give them the Whatsapp number of a fund administrator. They are asked to provide verifiable details. For example, which hospital the ailing relative is, name of the physician, contact of the health facility etc. None has so far provided any details.

Personally, I lay no claim to be tech savvy but is there a way our Telcos can protect their clients from unsolicited ‘attacks’ from people not on their contact list? Or can Whatsapp protect us from these spams? But then, why do these girls target only MTN users?

I know I have not seen the last of these girls. Indeed, they are girls at war, but I am ready for them.

Writer’s email address: akofa45@yahoo.com

By Dr. Akofa K. Segbefia