Local Man Scammed Out of $420K

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — A local man was scammed out of $420,000 by someone claiming to be a T-man online.

 

The scammer, who represented himself to the victim as "Sam Wilson, a U.S. Treasury agent," is still at large but one of his alleged conspirators was arrested by the FBI on Oct. 7. 

 

Urvishkumar Patel, 21, of South Boston, was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud in U.S. District Court in Springfield. Patel was allegedly acting as a courier in picking up packages of cash from the victim.  

 

The 75-year-old victim, who was not identified by name, was told by Wilson that his name had come up in an investigation. He was convinced to send Wilson his funds to "safeguard his money from being further implicated in the supposed money laundering scheme."

 

Victim 1, as described in court documents, received a popup message in June claiming his computer had frozen and given a phone number to call, which he thought was Microsoft.

 

He called, was told his computer could not be fixed and transferred to Wilson. The scammer identified himself as a Treasury agent and then ran down a list of addresses until Victim 1 noted his correct one. 

 

Based on his name and address, Wilson then told the victim that his name was involved in house purchases in the United States and Russia that could be part of a money-laundering scheme.