A script straight out of Alfred Hitchcock’s crime thrillers. It all starts with a pop-up warning on a computer. The setting, a peaceful Berkshire County home. It startles the 75-year-old man, the recipient of the warning. He is asked to make a quick call.
It sets in motion a carefully controlled scheme involving false authority, secret passcodes and boxes of cash.
Investigators traced the operation back to a young man living hundreds of miles away in South Boston, claimed a report by a national daily.
That man, 23-year-old Urvishkumar Vipulkumar Patel, of Gujarat origin and settled in South Boston in the US, has pleaded guilty to participating in a scheme that defrauded this elderly Berkshire County resident of approximately $500,000.
Authorities said the crime involved Patel posing as a law enforcement officer in a wire fraud operation, a form of cybercrime similar to so-called “digital arrests” but carried out through telecommunications rather than virtual custody.
Patel pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud using telecommunications. According to court records, the scheme involved scamming the elderly by directing them to place a call to Patel, who allegedly identified himself as “Sam Wilson.”
In this case, he told the elderly man that he was involved in money laundering and instructed him to follow specific directions.
According to an attorney’s statement, the fraud began in early 2024. The Berkshire County resident received a pop-up message on his computer claiming the system was frozen and instructing him to call a number displayed on the screen, which was purportedly associated with Microsoft.
The victim’s call was routed to an individual who claimed to be a federal law enforcement officer with the US Treasury Department and referred to himself as Sam Wilson. The caller told the victim that he was implicated in a money laundering scheme and instructed him to withdraw cash from his bank accounts and send the money to the Treasury Department for safekeeping.
Investigators stated that Patel, posing as Wilson, then directed the victim to place the cash in taped boxes with the victim’s own name and address written on them. Couriers were allegedly sent to the victim’s home to collect the boxes of cash.
Before each pickup, the caller instructed the victim to describe the clothing he would be wearing and provided a “PIN” passcode that the couriers were required to recite at the time of collection.
Case details further stated that on or about October 7, 2024, Patel drove from South Boston to North Adams, Massachusetts, to retrieve cash from the victim.
On that day, Patel spoke with an individual he believed to be the victim, provided the prearranged passcode, took possession of the box of cash and drove away. He was immediately apprehended by authorities.
The charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000. Sentencing is determined by a federal district court judge based on the US Sentencing Guidelines and the statutes governing criminal cases.
In a statement issued by the office of the US Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, led by L B Foley, it was stated that Patel was arrested and charged by criminal complaint on October 7, 2024, and later indicted by a federal grand jury in November 2024. US District Court Judge Mark G Mastroianni has scheduled sentencing for February 13.
In a separate but similar case highlighted by federal authorities, a 38-year-old Indian national of Gujarat origin, Ligneshkumar Patel, was sentenced in December last year to 90 months, or 7.5 years, in federal prison after pleading guilty to charges related to his involvement in an impostor scheme that defrauded 11 identified victims.
These included elderly residents from Edwardsville and Effingham in Illinois, as well as St. Louis, Missouri. The judge in that case also ordered him to pay more than $2 million in restitution.
Also Read: Gujarat-Origin Businessman Convicted In US Immigration Fraud Case https://www.vibesofindia.com/gujarat-origin-businessman-convicted-in-us-immigration-fraud-case/
