Blackmail as a business: extortion of queer Ghanaians on dating apps

A recurring pattern in our intake records: a meeting arranged through a dating app, a group waiting instead of a date, a phone taken, a video filmed, and a demand for mobile money that repeats for months.

The crime is robbery, assault and extortion. It goes unreported because reporting it means describing why you were there. The new law makes that calculation far worse.

We advise people on preserving evidence safely, on cutting off payment, and where possible on reporting through intermediaries. We also count these cases, because a harm no one counts is a harm no one is asked to fix.