SHELBY TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WXYZ) — A Shelby Township couple is out $50,000 after falling for an email phishing scam, according to police.
The suspect, Vedantkumar Bhupenbhai Patel, is in jail on charges of false pretenses and larceny. Police said the 25-year-old is in the United States on a student visa and has an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainer for deportation.
Watch the video report below:
The couple, in their 80s, spoke to 7 News Detroit about their experience. They did not want to be identified because of embarrassment, but they want to warn others.
The couple said they received an email stating they had hundreds of dollars in charges for a Geek Squad subscription. When the husband called the phone number, Patel said he could help them remove the charges. But then, Patel said he noticed $50,000 worth of other charges.
“And I said, that can’t be right. We don’t have anything like that. No, he said it’s from a pornographic site, a child pornographic site,” the wife recalled.
The couple said Patel told them to go to the bank to withdraw $50,000 to stop the charges from going through.
“And they stayed on (the phone) constantly, was telling us what we had to do, how we had to do it and that otherwise, that money would be put into a treasury account with the government and if we don’t do this the way we’re told, we will not get that money back,” the wife explained.
The couple went to one bank and withdrew $30,000 and then went to another bank to withdraw the other $20,000. They were told an undercover FBI agent was coming to their home to pick up the money.
She said a man did show up to their home.
“We give him the package, OK. We were told that they received it, everything was fine, you’ll get your money back, so on and so forth,” the wife recalled.
But then they said they received an email demanding another $100,000 from their retirement account and not to tell their financial adviser.
The wife told 7 News Detroit that being told not to tell her financial adviser was a red flag.
That’s when her bank told her to call the police. The police then managed to track down Patel.
“Our detective that was assigned to the case did a great job. He utilized our FLOCK camera system as well as several search warrants, and charges were authorized. And within about three weeks after the initial report came in, we identified the suspect and had him arrested and in custody,” Lt. Mark Benedettini told 7 News Detroit.
He said Patel lives in the Toledo area and that's where he was arrested. Police extradited him back to Michigan.
“Unfortunately, the $50,000 that he scammed the elderly couple out of, we believe that he sent it over back to India. So, as far as recovering that money, I’m not sure what’s going to happen with that,” Benedettini said.
Benedettini said Patel is being investigated by the FBI for at least two other scams of elderly citizens.
“Anybody that has older parents or older friends, check up on them, let them know what’s going on in the world, let them know these types of scams exist. We try as best as we can to notify the public of all these types of things,” the lieutenant advised.
