Indian national jailed for 8 years in US fraud case

New York: A 60-year-old Indian national was sentenced to eight years in prison for laundering money from a fraud scheme targeting the elderly and was also ordered to pay USD 2.4 million to the victims.

Ahmed Maqbul Syed, a citizen of India and former resident of Illinois, was sentenced last week to 96 months in prison by US District Judge John C. Hinderaker.

Syed had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering. The court also ordered him to pay approximately USD 2.4 million in restitution to the victims, the US Justice Department said in a statement.

Syed participated in a conspiracy to launder proceeds from a widespread “tech support” and “government imposter” fraud scheme that targeted elderly victims around the United States, including Arizona.

Victims were initially deceived by fraudulent computer pop-up messages that warned of a computer problem or made their computer freeze. When victims followed instructions to call for assistance, they were instead connected to scammers posing as tech support or government representatives.

The scammers convinced victims that their accounts had been hacked and their information had been compromised, which was not true.

In some cases, victims were wrongly led to believe that their accounts had been linked to child pornography or other crimes. The scammers then instructed the victims to withdraw or transfer money under the guise that they needed to protect or safeguard their assets, the statement said.

Victims were directed to purchase gold and withdraw cash, turning those funds over to individuals posing as government officials. Victims were also directed to purchase gift cards and transfer the gift card numbers to individuals falsely claiming that they would help.

At least one victim was also directed to make cash deposits into a Bitcoin ATM. Some victims lost most of their life savings to the scam, it added.

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