Senior Citizens According to the FBI report, US senior
citizens are the top targets for online scammers. In 2020, senior citizens lost close to $1 billion,
increasing from $300 million reported in 2019.
So, who are the scammers that have sunken low enough to come after grandma? The FBI
recently busted two massive fraud rings responsible for stealing millions. Sadly,
there are plenty of others out there waiting for their chance to strike.
Nationwide Scam In August 2021, San Diego County
officials charged eight people with extorting over $2 million from more than 70 elderly people.
The scam knew no boundaries. Senior citizens from coast to coast were swindled out of their
life savings by criminal actors preying on a grandparent's "love for their grandchildren."
The investigation started in San Diego with one victim, who luckily lost very little compared
to the tens of thousands lost by others. As more victims came forward with complaints,
authorities realized they were dealing with an extensive criminal network
working in tandem with a web of operatives all over the country.
Imagine getting a phone call from a loved one in distress,
being handed off to a lawyer, bail agent, or medical official, and then learning next that
the only way to help your family member is to act quickly and send money. What would you do?
This is one of many scenarios that scammers used in a well-rehearsed
and perfectly executed series of actions that involved a team of conspirators,
each with a role in this fraudulent scheme that took advantage of the elderly. Given
they amassed $10 million, they must have put on a 5-star performance.
The scheme involved many participants, each playing a specific part as the scam unfolded.
Someone made the call and impersonated a "loved one" who had been arrested or
involved in an accident; another would act as a lawyer; others would pose as bail agents or
medical personnel. And this is only the beginning; victims were then terrorized
into lying to other family members, friends, and banking institutions to keep the scam secret,
for obvious reasons, and to keep the path open for subsequent scams. They'd use the excuse of a
"court-ordered gag order" to keep victims from talking about the money transfers. A gag order
is a judge-appointed order that forbids a case to be talked about in public. If grandma tells anyone
she's sending money to bail her granddaughter out of jail, the police won't let her out.
Other actors involved handled the cash, using several tactics to deceive their victims and
the authorities. They created fake identities, rented properties to receive payments sent by
mail or other carriers, and used ride-shares and car rentals to pick the money up in person. Once
they had the funds, they transferred the money up the ladder to convert it to cryptocurrency.
This elaborate set-up worked, and it worked well for quite some time. The biggest reason
for its success is that seniors are trusting and polite. The elderly, more often than not,
own a home, have a hefty savings account, sport good credit, and are sympathetic,
especially when it comes to their loved ones—all the hallmarks of an "easy target."
Grandparent Scam Scamming schemes that target the
elderly population are called "Grandparent Scams." Fraudsters have plenty of tricks up their sleeves
to manipulate people into giving them money; however, targeting grandparents' dedication
and devotion for their grandchildren is one of the easiest scams in the book.
In one version of a grandparent scam, the victim receives a phone call,
and the caller asks, "Guess who's calling?" The grandparent starts to guess, and the scammer can
easily assume a family member's identity without background research on the victim. Some scammers
do a social media or internet search on actual family members and get enough information to
sound believable. Once the scammer gains the confidence of the victim, the rest is history.
Another tactic used is to create a sense of urgency and drama that requires immediate action,
supplying cash to help a loved one out of a legal situation or medical
emergency. This next story tells how an actual "grandparent scam" played out.
​​JD’s Story The story of an 87-year-old grandmother
from Oceanside, California, who was scammed out of tens of thousands of dollars, is heartbreaking.
The grandmother requested that her identity be protected and is using the pseudonym JD.
JD's story follows the classic grandparent scam. In May 2020, JD received a phone call from a
female she believed to be her granddaughter. The imposter told JD that she'd been in an accident,
was in police custody, and needed $9000 for bail. Her "granddaughter" handed the phone
to an individual claiming to be a lawyer. The "lawyer" warned "JD not to discuss this with
anyone or risk violating the court gag order." Shaken and deeply concerned for her granddaughter,
JD secured the $9000 and waited for a courier to arrive at her home to take it.
The very next day, JD received a call from a man claiming to be an "accident specialist."
This specialist told JD that a baby that was in the other vehicle involved in the accident died.
If JD did not come up with $42,000, her granddaughter "would be charged with
first-degree manslaughter." Willing to do anything to protect her granddaughter from prison time,
JD wired $42,000 to an account designated by the accident specialist.
This isn't the end of the scam — the next week, JD got another call saying that both
she and her granddaughter failed to follow the gag order and "If JD didn't pay an additional
$57,000, her granddaughter would go to jail. JD sent another wire transfer for $57,000.
JD's story ends here, but she's only one of the thousands of elderly adults taken advantage of
and left "financially and emotionally devastated" by this international ring
of conspiracy. Scams like these are "unconscionable" and take
advantage of the elderly to "exploit their love for their grandchildren."
RICO The massive crime
organization that stole millions by preying on the vulnerable elderly population was eventually
taken down using the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, also known as RICO.
RICO is a federal law passed in 1970 that allows the federal government to charge large groups of
people part of an "ongoing criminal enterprise." In short, if you can prove one person is involved,
you can charge the entire organization. RICO was put in place to fight organized
crime and helped take down the Genovese New York crime family and pockets of the Hell's Angels.
Title 18, section 1961 of the United States Code defines an extensive list of racketeering pursuits
that are considered crimes. RICO made it possible to bring down many of the key players involved in
this case in one fell swoop. ​​
RoboCall Center Remember, at the beginning of this
story, we mentioned one case in San Diego that started this investigation. That investigation
would eventually lead authorities overseas to a robocall center in India and an Indian National
named Shehzadkhan Pathan. Pathan and his co-conspirators robocalled thousands of elderly
Americans to locate victims from a call center in Ahmedabad, India. "After establishing contact
with victims through automated calls, Pathan and other "closers" at his call center would trick
victims into sending bulk cash through physical shipments and electronic money transfers."
The Department of Justice also confirms that Pathan and his crew impersonated federal law
enforcement officials, including the FBI, DEA, and representatives from other state agencies,
all in his effort to manipulate his victims to part with their cash.
When the dust settled, this scheme defrauded over
4000 victims, most of them elderly, and over $10 million was extorted.
Pathan and seven others were finally arrested and charged under the RICO
Act. Pathan pleaded guilty to conspiracy and identity theft charges in connection
to his overseas robocall center that defrauded Americans. He was sentenced to 22 years in jail.
Besides managing and manning the phones in his call center, Pathan also ran
an extensive money courier service. Money mules would collect the funds from the victims,
make deposits and transfer money. Pathan had mules planted from New Jersey to
California, with several key players functioning as his "right-hand men." Pathan supplied his crew
with false identities and provided hundreds of fake documents so there would be no "paper trail."
Indian Nationals Two of Pathan's co-conspirators,
Indian Nationals Pradipsinh Parmar and Sumer Patel, plead guilty and,
as part of their plea agreement, described their roles as money mules.
Both Parmar and Patel collected payments from coast to coast.
They admitted using Western Union, MoneyGram, and Walmart2Walmart to pick up roughly 4,300
wire transfers from 30 different states totaling a little over $4 Million.
They also used FedEx, UPS, and the USPS to collect packages containing bundles of cash.
The average amount of money per package was a staggering $17,500.
Parmar also confirmed receiving about 550 counterfeit identification
documents to aid him in collecting the cash and minimizing detection.
And these are only two members of the extensive
network of money mules from Pathan's conspiracy crew.
It is interesting to note that these two also revealed a few other robocall center tactics
to extort money from victims. One was an automated call telling callers they owed the U.S. government
money and that "bad things" would happen if they didn't pay up. Another was an automated call
convincing victims they had an outstanding debt on a fictitious loan, requiring payments immediately.
And here's another example of the lengths Pathan and his crew
would go to extort cash from their victims.
Codename June Like all the victims involved in
these scams, an elderly woman from Chesterfield, Virginia requested that her name not be used;
she's referred to as "VICTIM #1" in court documents but otherwise uses the codename "June."
June was in her late 60s and cared for her adult son. Her home needed repairs,
but at this point, she had no money left after receiving a robocall
telling her bad things would happen if she didn't pay up.
Two years ago, June received an automated call. What she heard terrified her — her personal
information was found in a vehicle in Brownsville, Texas, along with a shipment of illegal drugs.
The call was supposedly from the Social Security Administration with ties to the DEA.
June, terrified and not knowing what to do, paid the amount. She sent payments for the
next few weeks, mailing most of it as cash to the tune of $445,000, most of her savings.
Like many other victims, June was not only swindled out of her life
savings but left emotionally devastated and ashamed that she fell for the scam.
IRS Scam A 2014 article
from THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT warned readers about tax scamming calls. The IRS weighed in and confirmed
that calls were being received nationwide by crooked actors claiming to be from the IRS and
saying that victims owed money. If they didn't pay, "jail and other penalties" would be imposed.
Individuals that actually spoke with the scammers felt that the call sounded like it was from a
call center and that the callers had accents that sounded "of Indian or Pakistani descent."
It turns out those scammers called from Pathan's Robocall centers in India.
We can't help but wonder just how long Pathan's criminal conspiracy had been operating.
Keep Grandmas Safe The scams we already mentioned
are but a few of the many tactics scammers use to successfully separate grandparents from their
hard-earned savings. A few more grandparent scams to be aware of are the "romance scam" and the
"lottery or sweepstakes scam." Both these scams offer blissful promises of love and money.
With the popularity of online dating sites, "romance scammers" can easily hop online
and create elaborate profiles and target vulnerable seniors looking for love.
The scammers are usually (or pretend to be) far away. Once they have "hooked" their victim,
the requests for cash start pouring in. Scammers ask for money for emergencies,
visas, and travel expenses, all in the name of love. According to the FTC,
in 2019, seniors lost close to $84 million to the romance scam.
The lottery or sweepstakes scam is where scammers tell you that you have won a prize,
and to unlock the prize; you need to send cash. Some folks fall for this, but to sweeten the deal,
some scammers send the victim a check for a deposit that, of course, will take several
days to clear but shows up immediately in the account. The check gets deposited,
and the scammer makes off with the payment. Once the bank realizes the original check was fake,
they take the money back, leaving the victim at a loss. This particular tactic is very successful,
and victims have lost thousands of dollars via this scheme.
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