Indian arrested in U.S. over money scam targeting senior citizens

The indictment alleges victims across the U. S. were sometimes re-victimised multiple times by the Indian national and threatened with bodily harm if they did not pay

Published - June 11, 2022 01:35 pm IST - Washington

Representational image

Representational image

Federal law enforcement officials have arrested an Indian national in Virginia on charges of participating in an alleged nationwide scam targeting senior citizens.

Anirudha Kalkote, 24, was produced before a U. S. magistrate in Houston on Friday to face the charges.

The 12-count superseding indictment charges Kalkote with conspiracy and mail fraud. Also named in the indictment is M. D. Azad, 25, an illegal resident of Houston, who was originally charged in August 2020. He will appear again in court on the new charges in the near future.

Victims were threatened

The indictment alleges victims were sometimes re-victimised multiple times and threatened with bodily harm if they did not pay.

Upon conviction, both of them face up to 20 years in federal prison and a possible $250,000 fine.

Three others have already pleaded guilty in relation to the scheme and are awaiting sentencing — Sumit Kumar Singh, 24, Himanshu Kumar, 24, and MD Hasib, 26. They are Indian nationals who illegally resided in Houston.

Deceived to send money

According to the charges, the ring tricked and deceived victims using various ruses and instructed them to send money via wire through a money transmitter business such as Western Union or MoneyGram, by buying gift cards and providing to the fraudsters or by mailing cash to alias names via FedEx or UPS.

One such scheme allegedly involved the claim of providing computer technical support services. The indictment alleges that the scheme generally worked because fraudsters contacted victims by phone or via internet sites directing them to a particular phone number, federal prosecutors said.

Once victims contacted them, they were told various stories such as they were communicating with an expert that needed remote access to their computer in order to provide technical support services.

The fraudsters then allegedly gained further access to their personal data and bank and credit card information, the Department of Justice said in a statement.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.