Vinoth Ponmaran led a tech support scam targeting over 6,500 elderly victims in the US and Canada as the ring tricked victims into believing their computers were infected with malware, then remotely accessed their machines and charged them for unnecessary repairs (never performed).
The social engineering scheme exploited victims’ lack of technical knowledge and resulted in over $6 million in losses. Ponmaran pleaded guilty to conspiracy for both wire fraud and manipulating victims’ computers.
Vinoth Ponmaran allegedly participated in a social engineering scheme involving tech support fraud from 2015 to 2018, as this India and US-based ring targeted elderly victims in North America.
The ring employed scare tactics, falsely claiming malware infections, to defraud victims into paying for unnecessary repairs, which resulted in over $6 million stolen from at least 6,500 elderly individuals.
The fraud ring employed social engineering tactics to trick victims, in which malicious pop-ups mimic legitimate software warnings displayed on victims’ computers, falsely claiming virus infection.
The pop-ups urged victims to call a tech support number and discouraged them from restarting to heighten urgency, which, coupled with the unauthorized use of logos, aimed to deceive victims into believing a real threat existed.
While the pop-ups themselves caused temporary system freezes, no actual viruses were present. The fraudulent “technicians” then charged exorbitant fees to perform basic and freely available anti-virus scans via remote access.
Ponmaran, the leader of an India-based tech support fraud ring, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and conspiracy to damage protected computers as his ring targeted elderly victims in the US and Canada, using a call center to trick them into paying for unnecessary repairs.
He recruited US accomplices to register fake businesses and launder fraud proceeds through bank accounts in both countries. He faces a maximum of five years of imprisonment and has agreed to forfeit over $6 million and pay restitution of nearly $1.85 million, as sentencing is set for June 24th, 2024.
According to the U.S. Government, in 2022, U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty sentenced Romana Leyva and Ariful Haque, co-defendants, in a tech support fraud scheme. Leyva received a 100-month prison sentence, supervised release, and was ordered to forfeit and pay restitution totaling over $7 million.
Haque faced a one-year prison term, supervised release, and over $500,000 in forfeiture and restitution. The Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit is handling the case, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael D. Neff in charge of the prosecution.
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