Two Indian Men Defrauded Millions In 'Robocall' Scheme By Posing As Social Security Administration

More victims have emerged after two Indian nationals pleaded guilty on conspiracy charges relating to their involvement in an international robocalls scheme that targeted thousands of vulnerable elderly Americans across multiple U.S. states, including Virginia, for several years.

Pradipsinh Parmar, 41, and Sumer Patel, 37, have been charged for their involvement with collecting money on behalf of a robocall conspiracy in February this year after they worked for the conspiracy’s leader, Shehzadkhan Pathan, 39, CBS19 reported.

Pathan pleaded guilty in January this year to conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and aggravated identity theft after defrauding over 4,000 U.S. victims, mostly the elderly, of over $10 million.

He faces up to 22 years in prison when sentenced July 1 by U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson after operating a call center in Ahmedabad, India from which automated robocalls were made to victims in the U.S. Among those victims is "June."

Public federal court records revealed that victim June, which is not her real name, is a retired Chesterfield County resident in her late 60s who cares for her adult son. They reside in a home in dire need of repairs that she can no longer afford after she was left $445,000 out of pocket by the fraudsters.

According to June, she had received an automated emergency call on May 2, 2019, from the Social Security Administration. She said was connected to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration where an agent informed her that her bank records were recovered inside a vehicle in Brownsville, Texas, along with a load of cocaine following a drug bust.

The call, however, turned out to be a hoax but it was too late because June had already handed out her details to the crooks.

The hoax callers had ordered June to surrender half of the cash in her bank accounts as a show of good faith while Drug Enforcement Administration investigations were ongoing. She was then assured her money would be returned once she is cleared of any misconduct, the Richmond Times-Dispatch noted.

Reports also indicated that from May 2 to May 21 in 2019, June withdrew $238,400 in cash from her bank accounts, sending the cash in eight FedEx packages to addresses in California and New Jersey, as told by the conmen.

In May 2019, another victim in Northern Virginia was told to mail $120,000 in cash to an address in New Jersey and figured out that he had been tricked, alerting the FBI. When the scammers then ordered that victim to send another $40,000, FBI agents scheduled for the "controlled" delivery of the parcel, court documents show.

The “controlled delivery” had resulted in the identification of multiple leads, witnesses as well as persons of interest. The operation had also generated evidence, pointing authorities to June, named as victim #1 in court documents.

For several years, Pathan and the conspirators under his watch had defrauded more than 4,000 victims of over $10 million by ordering them to wire money in amounts ranging from $300 to $3,000, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Some victims were made to believe that they had been approved for personal loans and were making initial installments.

“These are sophisticated scammers who set up transnational fraud operations using methods that have been refined and perfected over time to prey on vulnerabilities and threaten victims into compliance,” Raj Parekh, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said.

The schemes are becoming more common and difficult for law enforcement to detect. Police are urging the victims to come forward so they could look into it and later bring the callous criminals to justice, Parekh noted.

The fraudsters who victimized June were so well-versed in impersonating representatives of the FBI, DEA, Social Security Administration, and other government agencies that when real FBI agents approached some of the victims, it was difficult to convince the victims that the agents were legitimate public officials.

Authorities noted that the members of this conspiracy in India had preyed on thousands of unsuspecting victims, many of whom were vulnerable elderly Americans.

"This Office is committed to working with our law enforcement partners to combat international financial fraud and elder abuse schemes,” Parekh concluded.

Elder abuse, which affects at least 10 percent of older Americans every year, is a grave crime against the nation’s most vulnerable citizens. The Department of Justice remains committed to fighting all forms of elder abuse and financial exploitation to demonstrate its steadfast commitment to crack down on any intentional or negligent act that places a serious risk of harm to older Americans.