Two unsuspecting women on Long Island became victims of a scam that ended up costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in gold bars and cash, according to police, targeted because they were older and not as tech savvy.
A 72-year-old woman from Huntington, got a notice on her computer on June 16 that her computer was compromised and she needed to contact Microsoft, Suffolk County police said. When she called what she thought was Microsoft, a person she spoke with told her that her computer contained child pornography and porn sites.
After a number of conversations, the woman met with a man and paid him $35,000 In order to remove the illicit content, which didn't actually exist.
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Eventually, the woman realized she might be getting scammed and contacted police. Detectives with Suffolk County's Financial Crimes Unit investigated and found that a man identified as Yash Shah was the person responsible not only for that scam, but also another one that netted him far more money from another target, according to police.
Police got a search warrant to search Shah's phone and found that a 73-year-old Kings Park woman had already been scammed out of about $430,000, including $277,000 worth of gold bars on July 20.
When reached by detectives, the second victim similarly said she had been told there was child pornography on her computer, and need to pay to get it off. When police contacted the woman, she was about deliver another $260,000 to those who had been scamming her, according to Suffolk County police.
The victim didn't initially believe that the detectives who contacted her were really from the Suffolk County Police Department, and had to be convinced by a family member that they were in fact cops and she was being scammed, police said. That may have been due to the scammers identifying themselves to their victims as federal agents, and requested the money in return for not reporting the women.
"These guys are professionals. They have a script. They know what they're doing and are super convincing," said Deputy Inspector Frank Catalina.
Police said Shah picked up the money, but was later arrested after the second victim took a picture of his car's license plate.
Shah, of Baldwin, was arrested Thursday. The 25-year-old was charged with second- and third-degree grand larceny, as well as two counts of conspiracy. He was arraigned on Thursday and left court without bail and without comment.
Shahs lawyer claimed his client was simply hired to pick up a package, having no idea he was part of a scam. The lawyer said Shah "has also been a victim of this entire scam...we maintain his innocence and he has no information, no understanding of overlapping conspiracy."
Police believe the scammers have ties to India and have victimized at least a handful of others outside of Suffolk County. Investigators have not yet been able to recover the lost money, but were able to stop the second victim from losing even more.
