New Delhi: The United States is collaborating with law-enforcement agencies across countries, particularly in India, to combat “elder fraud and abuse”—executed through government impersonation or tech support scam—as the FBI was able to arrest 215 such criminals in 2024 through cooperation with agencies in Delhi.
The data comes from the Annual Report to Congress on Department of Justice Activities to Combat Elder Fraud and Abuse—released by Department of Justice (DoJ) Attorney General Todd Blanche on 28 October.
“By collaborating with law enforcement in India, the FBI in 2024 was able to conduct hundreds of interviews that ultimately led to 215 arrests in connection with take downs of various tech support and government impersonation schemes,” said the report.
But enforcement alone, he said, is not enough. “Preventing fraud and abuse in the first place is always the best outcome.”
As per the data shared in the report, this year alone, the department pursued nearly 350 criminals and civil enforcement actions involving fraud or abuse that targeted or disproportionately affected older adults.
Approximately, 96 percent of the cases were criminal in nature and 45 percent involved international schemes. These cases named 712 defendants charged with stealing or alleged to have stolen $4,841,305,931 (or about 46,000 crore) from 711,353 victims, said the report.
The report details several cases involving scams targeting older Americans, including those in which individuals based in India allegedly played a role.
“Under this administration’s leadership, the Department’s pledge is clear: We will vigorously pursue those who harm older Americans and ensure that elder justice remains a top priority,” said Todd Blanche.
Indian working as ‘money mule’
In July 2025, the United States Attorney’s Office (USAO) for the Western District of Michigan announced that Kaushalkumar Chaudhary (30), from India, was sentenced to 63 months in prison for conspiring to commit wire fraud—a US federal offence involving the use of electronic communications or electronic financial transactions to carry out a fraudulent scheme.
In an indictment in August 2024, The United States charged Chaudhary with participating “in a transnational internet-based conspiracy targeting older victims from at least June 2023 to July 2024”.
The DoJ said that Chaudhary pleaded guilty to the indictment in February 2025.
“Chaudhary was a courier or ‘money mule’ for a conspiracy that targeted older and vulnerable victims. Individuals in India and the United States used the internet, email platforms like Google’s Gmail, and cell phones to contact victims and make false claims using a variety of schemes,” the statement said.
These schemes included telling the victims that their social security account numbers had been compromised, that they were under federal investigation, or some other false reason why they should convert their financial holdings into cash, gold, and/or silver, the DoJ said.
“Conspirators often claimed to be members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal Trade Commission, Federal Communications Commission, or some other government or law enforcement agency and falsely asserted that they could assist the victims in protecting their money,” said the DoJ in the report.
Further the DoJ states that on many occasions, the defendant’s co-conspirators “directed the victims to mail them cash or to wire money to the U.S. Money Reserve to convert their funds into gold or silver.”
Once the victims agreed to convert their financial holdings into cash, gold and/or silver, the co-conspirators contacted the defendant through WhatsApp and cellular telephone calls and directed the defendant to travel to the victims’ homes or a defined meet-up location to pick up the cash, gold and/or silver, according to DoJ report.
The DoJ has claimed that Chaudhary, acting at the direction of his co-conspirators, “would travel to the victims’ homes or other pre-arranged meeting locations and retrieve the cash, gold, or silver from the victims. He would then drive to meet coconspirators at designated locations and receive a share of the proceeds as his payment.”
The balance of the stolen money would be transmitted to other co-conspirators both inside and outside of the United States.
Chaudhary, for instance, picked up gold and cash from 14 victims in various states in 2023 and 2024, including as much as $70,000 worth gold from a victim on one occasion, according to the DoJ. “Fortunately, one of Chaudhary’s victims received a call from one of his co-conspirators while speaking with a social worker at a Senior Resource Center.”
Then, the alert social worker detected the fraud, contacted police and a sting operation resulted in Chaudhary’s arrest when he came to pick up a “decoy package” of gold, the report records.
The court applied sentencing enhancements for both impersonating federal officers and participating in a conspiracy where the goal was to defraud particularly vulnerable and elderly victims. Chaudhary was responsible for hundreds of thousands of dollars in loss and was ordered to pay restitution to his victims in the amount of $524,947 (approximately, Rs 5 crore).
Indian committing ‘wire fraud’ against elders in US
In a similar incident, the DoJ details another government impersonation scam, where beginning in August 2023, Abdul Waheed Mohammed, Shalinee Vyas, and several other co-conspirators, were involved in a scam targeting older victims across the United States.
The victims were told by scammers impersonating agents with the Federal Trade Commission that they had committed a crime or had their bank accounts hacked.
The DoJ said, in September 2023, those working with Mohammed and Vyas contacted an older victim in Rapid City, South Dakota, and falsely claimed to be agents with the Federal Trade Commission, local law enforcement officers, and court personnel.
“The victim was told she had been involved in a crime and would be arrested if she did not do exactly what she was told, which included paying over cash and gold to resolve the non-existent criminal matter. The scammers also told the victim she could not speak about the matter to anyone or she would be arrested,” the DoJ has detailed in its report.
Over the course of a week, the victim lost more than $100,000 (about Rs 95 lakh) to the scammers when they came to the victim’s home to pick up cash and gold. The victim’s friends noticed a change in her behavior having lost the money, ultimately leading to uncovering the scam.
Law-enforcement was made aware and learned the victim was being ordered to obtain another $95,000 in gold to be picked up by Mohammed. Deputies with the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office conducted an operation to assist the victim in making it appear as though she was prepared to turn over the $95,000 in gold.
When Mohammed arrived at the victim’s home to pick up the gold, he was arrested and state charges were filed against him. Following Mohammed’s arrest, multiple law-enforcement agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, and local law enforcement conducted an investigation to determine the scope of the fraud.
Mohammed’s phone was seized and agents located numerous messages from Shalinee Vyas to Mohammed and others directing Mohammed to various locations throughout the United States to collect cash and gold from older victims who were being scammed, including the pickup of gold from the victim in Rapid City.
“Law enforcement learned that Vyas was residing in the United Kingdom and that the scam originated out of India. Based on the investigation, law enforcement learned that Vyas and Mohammed had been involved in defrauding numerous victims across the United States who collectively lost more than one million dollars to the scam,” the DoJ found in its investigation.
Shalinee Vyas was arrested in November 2024 after she flew into the United States. The same month, the USAO for the District of South Dakota obtained an indictment against Mohammed and Vyas charging them with conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Vyas pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to 63 months’ custody in October 2025. Mohammed proceeded to trial where he was convicted and later sentenced to 60 months’ custody in January 2026, said the DoJ.
Indian call centres defrauding
Further, the report details its third case: how perpetrators of technical support and refund scams routinely target vulnerable older Americans through unsolicited phone calls, emails, and website pop ups. In 2026, Zhao Wang, aka “Oscar,” was convicted in the Southern District of California for leading a $27 million fraud and money laundering operation that defrauded more than 2,000 older victims nationwide.
Wang, a Chinese national, was the lead defendant in a five defendant indictment unsealed in 2024.
According to public documents, the conspiracy operated technical support, bank impersonation, government impersonation, and refund scams aimed at older victims.
“Victims received unsolicited calls, emails, or pop ups urging them to contact a phone number tied to India based call centers. Once victims called, scammers used social engineering techniques to build trust. They frequently persuaded victims to download remote desktop software, allowing conspirators to access their computers and continue the fraud,” said the DoJ.
The DoJ said one of the most common schemes was the refund scam. Victims were told they were entitled to a small refund, such as reimbursement for an alleged unauthorized retail charge.
While pretending to process the refund, scammers staged an “accidental” overpayment. They then instructed victims to return the purported excess funds through wire transfers or by sending bulk cash via express mail. In reality, no refund had occurred, and victims were tricked into sending their own money. Conspirators directed victims to send these cash filled packages to U.S. retail locations, said the DoJ.
Wang’s operation primarily used CVS Pharmacy stores as pickup points. Wang and his co conspirators retrieved the packages using fake California, Nevada, and Texas driver’s licenses. Wang, age 41, was identified as the ringleader of the US operation.
“Photos and videos seized from his cellphone showed conspiracy members retrieving and opening hundreds of cash laden packages. Conspirators typically delivered proceeds to Wang daily. Wang then converted the cash into cryptocurrency and coordinated cryptocurrency transfers to his India-based co-conspirators, keeping roughly 18 percent of the funds himself and sending the remainder overseas,” the DoJ’s investigation states.
Chat records captured Wang explicitly acknowledging that his operation was “scamming elderly Americans.”
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
Also read: How West Delhi brothers duped 20,000 Americans in $10m scam. US-based aunt & Russian software helped