Scammers are preying on Afghans desperate to leave their country | #whatsapp | #lovescams | #phonescams

AISHA SULTANA is a 25-year-old Afghan woman who worked in her country’s parliament until mid-August. That was when Kabul, the capital, fell to the Taliban. She has been in hiding ever since, moving between relatives’ homes with her younger sisters. The family has reason to fear. Their father was an officer in the Afghan army (he was killed in a suicide-bombing). Their brothers, who are also in hiding, served in the special forces. These links do not endear them to their new rulers.

Their mother and an older sister were able to flee to Canada during the chaotic evacuation that followed the Taliban’s takeover. Ms Aisha Sultana (not her real name) would love to follow. So when a friend sent her the phone number of a Canadian immigration official, she jumped at the opportunity. The man at the other end of the WhatsApp chat promised that he could get her and her sisters to Canada for a mere $2,500 each. Their lack of passports was no obstacle. And just $500 needed to be paid upfront, with the rest due only when they reached Canada.

It was too good to be true. Though the phone number appeared to be Canadian, it was in fact a virtual one purchased from Google Voice, which allows people to set up a North American number from anywhere in the world. The photos its owner posted on Instagram, apparently of him welcoming refugees he had helped get to Canada, were stolen from the account of Michael Levitt, a former Canadian MP who served on the foreign affairs committee. The first Mr Levitt heard of it was when he was contacted by The Economist.

Such scams have long existed in other poor, migrant-exporting countries. Criminals in Ghana even set up a fake American embassy in Accra that issued (useless) visas to victims. They are now proliferating in Afghanistan, which provides rich pickings among the former government officials, activists and army officers desperate to leave. Many who were approved for evacuation to Britain, Canada or America find themselves trapped in Kabul. They are vulnerable to tricksters promising, for example, safe passage to Qatar for $3,000 per person. Somebody using the name Noor Bagam pretends to be an official in the Canadian High Commission in Pakistan, and says she can get families to Canada for $5,000 a head. Travel agents charge $200 to apply for Pakistani electronic visas, which are free, promising that they get better results. In reality, most are still refused.

Ms Aisha Sultana was lucky. She took the bait, but was unable to send any money. Her scammer demanded payment in Bitcoin, or else via Moneygram, a money-transfer service, to a Ponik Natalya in Russia. She could not do either, because withdrawals from Afghan bank accounts are frozen. But she was still incensed to realise that she had been given false hope. Since she backed out, “he still texts me every day and asks for money”. She ignores the messages, but remains desperate to leave.

In the grim calculus of everyday life in Afghanistan, however, losing a few thousand dollars may be the better fate. In recent weeks, several prominent female activists have been murdered. One, Forouzan Safi, a 30-year-old feminist in Mazar-i-Sharif, a northern city, was lured out of her home by somebody who claimed to be able to help her leave Afghanistan.■

This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline “No way out”