A Fairhope couple was scammed out of thousands of dollars by illegal aliens who ran an online operation, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Pradeep Patel of India and Saurav Sharma of Nepal are charged with federal conspiracy to commit mail fraud.
According to a criminal complaint, the scam occurred in August, when the wife received a pop-up message on her iPad warning that her account was compromised. The message gave a name and number to contact. The fake name provided was "Scott Gibson." She called the man, and he was able to find out she used Regions Bank. The scammer transferred her to a man who identified himself as "Robin Stall," with Regions Bank.
The person posing as Stall told the woman that hackers were attempting to steal $12,500 from her account for the use of an online gambling site. He told her to withdraw that amount from her account so the hacker would think the money was taken out. He then told her to deposit the funds into a Bitcoin machine and send it to a virtual wallet. She was told not to tell her husband and drove to a Bitcoin machine located inside a gas station at the intersection of State Highway 181 and Baldwin County Road 48.
After depositing half of the money, investigators say the woman became emotional and left the location. She called her husband, who came to help and met her at another gas station off Baldwin County Road 44 to complete the transaction.
The scammers falsely told the husband and wife that someone at Regions Bank was the hacker, so they should not go to their bank.
Stall convinced the couple to allow him access to their computer and instructed them to transfer $190,000 from their account to JM Bullion in Dallas to purchase gold bars. The bars were shipped to the couple's home, where the scammers told the couple someone would pick them up.
On August 20, Patel traveled from Georgia to the couple's Fairhope home. On a second occasion, the couple met Sharma at the Dollar General on U.S. 98 in Fairhope to take him another gold bar.
Upon further investigation, the FBI linked Patel to a similar scam in Charleston, South Carolina. Another scammer out of Jackson, Miss., told the FBI that Patel taught him how to run the scam.
Patel is currently in ICE custody after his Visa expired on December 10. Sharma is in the United States on a Visa that expired Jan. 6, 2023.
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