05-29-2019 , 11:43 PM
Quote:Three alleged tech-support scammers have been charged with bilking the elderly out of at least $1.3 million for tech support services they didn’t need and never got.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced on Friday that the three had been arrested the day before.
According to a complaint filed by FBI Special Agent Carie Jeleniewski, the trio would allegedly cold-call their victims, running through the standard tech support scammer’s ruse of claiming to be from one of the big computer companies and warning the victims that their computer was infected with a virus. This went on for years, starting at least in 2013 and continuing on up until this month.
In fact, while investigators were interviewing one of the defendants, Gurjet Singh, at his home in Queens, New York, a carrier truck pulled up to deliver a check made payable to NY IT Solutions Inc. – one of the companies the alleged fraudsters set up to deposit money mailed in by their victims. According to the criminal complaint, Singh had been in the midst of explaining to officers that he collected checks and then wired the money to Gunjit Malhotra, from India. Singh’s cut of the allegedly swindled funds: 8%.
The defendants are Malhotra, 30, of Ghaziabad, India; Singh, 22, of Queens, New York, and Jas Pal, 54, also of Queens. They’ve each been charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. They’ve each also been charged with one count of conspiracy to access a protected computer in furtherance of fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Maximum sentences are rarely handed out.
FULL ARTICLE HERE