ANANSI’S GOLD: The Man Who Looted the West, Outfoxed Washington, and Swindled the World, by Yepoka YeeboStop me if you’ve heard this one: A stranger needs to retrieve money stuck in a bank. And to meet this and other administrative costs necessary to unlocking this fortune, would you kindly help him with a little investment? This is known as the advance fee fraud, or “419.”These days, the scams generally target the elderly and the net-illiterate. “They saw Blay-Miezah, in his chief’s finery, spinning a tale about darkest Africa, untold wealth and a corrupt leader,” Yeebo writes. “And because the story — and the man — fit their preconceptions like a dovetail joint, they made up the rest of the story for themselves.”

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Persons: Yepoka, you’ve, John Ackah Blay, Henry Kissinger, “, ” Yeebo, ” Locations: Outfoxed Washington, Ghana