The US Department of Justice has stated that an Indian has been charged as a part of a crackdown on a gang from India that preyed on the elderly with fraud and physical threats.
The Indian citizen named in the case is 24-year-old Anirudh Kalkote, who is part of a larger conspiracy against the elderly across the US.
He was in custody in Virginia and brought to Houston to appear in court, the Justice Department said. Along with him, another person Md Azad, 25, was also charged with similar allegations, though his nationality hasn’t been declared.
Meanwhile, three Indians living illegally in the Houston area, Sumit Kumar Singh, 24, Himanshu Kumar, 24, and Md Hasib, 26, have already admitted in a court of being guilty to being part of the racket. They are presently waiting to be sentenced.
According to sources, the group tricked the elderly and retired citizens of the US through various means and instructed them to send money. One of their most common techniques was to trick the victims into believing that their computers needed fixing, and they pretended to be tech support.
Once they had access to the machines, they would collect personal information and credit card details. In another ploy, they would tell the victims that they had overpaid for their services and claimed to be making a refund and eventually get their bank and credit card details.
They would also force the elderly to make up for non-existent overpayment by sending money through Western Union or gift cards or mailing cash to alias names via FedEx or United Parcel Service.
They stooped down to the level of threatening the elderly to cause bodily harm if the victims did not pay up.
