A fake American embassy was operating in the Ghanaian capital Accra for about a decade, where fraudsters posing as consular officers and printed counterfeit visas.

According to the US State Department spokesman Mark Toner, no one was believed to have entered the America with one of the fake visas, that were reproductions based on genuine travel documents the con-men had obtained.

Toner said that, “This fake embassy made and printed counterfeit visas using expired visas as a blueprint.” “It’s very, very hard to counterfeit US visas these days and so this operation failed.”

Responding a question regarding fake embassy, Toner suggested that it was able to operate so long because might possible, victims were embarrassed to report the crime.

The State Department said that, “The criminals running the operation were able to pay off corrupt officials to look the other way, as well as obtain legitimate blank documents to be doctored.”

“They were duped, they were conned,” he said. “You don’t necessarily go running to the police and say, ‘I illegally obtained a US visa and, oh, by the way it looks terrible.”

Daphne Kerremans, Dutch Foreign Affairs Ministry spokeswoman, said that, “It’s still being investigated and we are awaiting the outcome.”

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Nandini