Trending
WARREN -- An elderly woman from Warren became an unwitting victim of a "phantom hacker” scam, carried out by two citizens from India who now reside in New Jersey.
A federal indictment for conspiracy to commit wire fraud names Anil Mangkia and Yash Navadiya, no ages listed, in court records from the U.S. Northern District Court.
A series of phone calls were made to the woman from individuals posing as bank and government officials. FBI agents say the conspirators used Voice Over Internet Protocol, which is a virtual phone number that uses an internet connection to make phone calls from any location.
Investigators say the conspirators emailed the 77-year-old Warren woman Jan. 12 from a Gmail account with a PayPal invoice.
The woman called the number listed on the email and spoke to a "representative" of Paypal who said they'd issue a refund. During the call, the victim was sent a form. Upon accessing it, her computer screen began to start "rolling and blinking." She was instructed to enter 100, but that was later forged to $100,000 by the conspirators, the indictment states.
The scammer then instructed she was refunded more than needed and told her to contact Huntington National Bank, using a number they provided. The false bank rep told the woman she'd have to pay taxes if she tried returning the funds, instructing her to again reach out to a fake PayPal rep who instructed her to wire the money to a coin dealer in exchange for gold coins to reimburse PayPal.
That same day the victim drove to a coin dealer in Stow to receive a total of about $97,000. A courier then arrived at her home, as she was told, to pick up the gold coins.
The next day, she was instructed to finish processing the refund, inputting $300 but this was then changed to $30,000.
Having been told she once again refunded too much, for three days the conspirators had her make two separate withdrawals of $15,000 -- in which she was verbally instructed by a conspirator to withdraw the funds into a Bitcoin ATM at a gas station in Warren using a QR code.
Over several days the victim was in contact with a man posing as a member of the Federal Trade Commission who swindled her into withdrawing thousands of dollars from her investment account to "secure her assets" in the U.S. Treasury Vault until after a child porn investigation in California was completed. The conspirator told her that her social security number had appeared in the investigation.
The indictment states the conspirator informed her that her social security number was used to open nine bank accounts linked to the investigation.
The victim also withdrew over $300,000 from her retirement account that she was instructed to use to open a bank account, then wire the funds to a fake bullion company in Nevada for the purchase of gold bars.
The victim questioned why the U.S. Treasury wouldn't take cash, but the conspirators explained that gold was "more stable" and the victim would earn 25% interest.
The indictment states the victim inquired about a purchase of 161 one-ounce gold bars with the bullion company. Days later, she was sent a check to her Warren home.
FBI INVESTIGATION
Shortly after the FBI began investigating the scam, agents had the woman complete a fictitious order at their advice for gold bars to be delivered to her Warren address.
When the bars arrived, the conspirators told her to place them in a plastic bag and provided her with the password "Fort Knox" to be used when a fake undercover agent arrived to retrieve the gold bars.
Surveilling the home, local enforcement paired with FBI agents watched as the victim met with the fake undercover agent sent by the conspirators. The "undercover agent" was then arrested by real law enforcement authorities.
During questioning, the fake agent helped lead the agents to arrest another involved party after the conspirator-turned-informant delivered the bars to a Macedonia address to be picked up by a resident also connected to the scam.
When that conspirator was arrested, they told agents that Mangkia paid them $2,500 to pick up packages of cash and gold for Mangkia's jewelry business, GLAM, based in New York City.
This conspirator said the Macedonia residence was the one Mangkia had chosen for pickups of cash and gold packages since the conspirator had previously done pickups for Mangkia's New York business there.
On Feb. 1, while detained at the Macedonia police station, the conspirator contacted Mangkia, telling him the police needed records for the gold bars with which they were caught. Mangkia and Navadiya showed up that day and were arrested.