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Zeeshan Khan, 22, and Maaz Ahmed Shamsi, 24, operated India-based call centers that made robocalls to mostly elderly U.S. residents, Acting U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Rachael A. Honig said.
Once contact was made, members of the international ring “would coerce or trick the victims into sending large sums of cash through physical shipments or wire transfers to other members of the conspiracy, including Shamsi and Khan,” Honig said.
Making believe they were from the Social Security Administration, the FBI or the DEA, the callers “threatened victims with severe legal or financial consequences if they did not comply,” the U.S. attorney said.
Another method involved posing as support techs who “coerced the victims into granting the caller remote access to their personal computers -- and through that to the victims’ bank accounts,” Honig said.
Then they’d “convince the victims that an overpayment was made ultimately instruct them to send money by way of mail or wire transfer,” she said.
All told, Shamsi and Khan received $618,000 from 19 victims across the U.S., Honig said.
Both men took deals from the government rather than face trial, pleading guilty in U.S. District Court in Camden on Wednesday to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
U.S. District Judge Joseph Rodriguez scheduled both for sentencing on Dec. 6.
Honig credited special agents of the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General Office of Investigations New York Field Division and special agents of the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York Field Office – El Dorado Task Force with the investigation leading to the pleas, secured by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Meriah Russell of her Criminal Division in Camden.
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