Reports suggest a 69-year-old British widow, identified as Janet Fordham, has died in Ghana attempting to recover her £1 million lost to romance scams.
Sky News published on April 22, 2026, suggests the woman was targeted by multiple online fraudsters over a five-year period, leaving her to sell her home and exhaust her life savings.
According to the information gathered, Janet Fordham’s ordeal began in 2017 when she joined online dating platforms and connected with a man who claimed to be a British Army sergeant major in Syria.
The alleged British Army sergeant convinced her to send money under the pretext of helping him transport gold bars to the UK.
Believing they were in a genuine relationship,
Fordham even told her family they planned to settle down together upon his return, believing they were in a genuine relationship.
“I told her categorically not to send him any. Janet had been sending money to him, but we didn’t find out about this until years later. I believe she gave him around £150,000,” Her daughter-in-law, Melanie Fordham, stated.
She was later defrauded again by someone posing as a diplomat.
In another instance, another man, identified as Kofi, contacted Fordham, claiming to be a doctor in Ghana who worked part-time at a phone repair shop, offering to help her recover her lost funds after claiming he had discovered a phone containing her previous conversations with scammers.
Melanie Fordham asserted that Kofi’s claims drew her mother-in-law deeper into the situation, leading her to transfer money abroad using Bitcoin and ATM withdrawals.
In a post shared by the EDHUB, sharing more information on the news on X, read, “A 69-year-old British widow died in a car crash in Ghana while attempting to recover money lost to a series of romance frauds, an inquest has heard.
Janet Fordham, a retired housekeeper from Honiton, Devon, UK, fell victim to multiple online scams between 2017 and 2022, losing her home and life savings, estimated at between £800,000 and £1 million.
Fraudsters, posing as soldiers and diplomats, convinced her to send large sums through transfers and cash withdrawals despite repeated warnings from family and police.
In October 2022, Fordham travelled to Ghana after being contacted by a man known as Kofi, who claimed to be a doctor and offered to help retrieve her funds.
She was a passenger in a car driven by him on 14 February 2023 when the vehicle crashed en route from Accra to the Oti region. She died from head injuries”.
In related news, the United States Attorney’s Office has announced that a Ghanaian man identified as Derrick “Van” Yeboah has pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to stealing over $10 million from U.S. victims through romance scams and business email compromise schemes.
According to the United States Attorney’s Office, Derrick “Van” Yeboah was part of a Ghana-based criminal organisation that collectively defrauded victims of more than $100 million.
They further detailed that Derrick “Van” Yeboah was extradited to the United States in August 2025.
Reports suggest that the United States is working closely with the Government of Ghana and other international partners to investigate and prosecute cyber and transnational criminals perpetrating crimes against Americans.
See the post below:
A 69-year-old British widow died in a car crash in Ghana while attempting to recover money lost to a series of romance frauds, an inquest has heard.
— EDHUB🌍ℹ (@eddie_wrt) April 23, 2026
Janet Fordham, a retired housekeeper from Honiton, Devon, UK fell victim to multiple online scams between 2017 and 2022, losing… pic.twitter.com/2kUmqa6oUd