Middle Georgia woman accused of conspiring to take money from elders in call center scam
A woman accused of being part of a money laundering call center scam was arrested in Middle Georgia Tuesday, court records show.
Trusha Chaudhary is accused of being part of a money laundering conspiracy that targeted elders in Ohio and Illinois, according to the indictment. She was one of the conspirators who lived in the U.S. to facilitate transaction between elders and perpetrators at an Indian-based call center, according to court records. She made her first appearance in federal court in Macon Tuesday, but her case will be transferred to Ohio.
While Shreyas Chaudhary lived in India, Trusha Chaudhary and Raval lived in the U.S. to facilitate transactions between the elders and perpetrators at the call center.
Chaudhary was arrested and arraigned in Middle Georgia because she lived in the region, but the case is actually based in Ohio, according to Melissa Hodges, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Middle District of Georgia. Chaudhary will be transported to Ohio, where the case will take place.
Chaudhary is one of three conspirators indicted in the case, court records show. The others are Yash Raval and Shreyas Baldevbhai Chaudhary. Shreyas Chaudhary also was arrested in Georgia. It is unclear whether Raval has been detained.
How the call center scam worked
The indictment details how the alleged scammers would steal money from elders. A scammer posing as a customer service employee for a company or a bank called victims, typically elders, and claimed their account with the company or bank was hacked. Then another scammer, posing as law enforcement, would validate the story and suggest the victims move their money to a third-party account for protection, according to the indictment.
The scammers would coordinate the transfer with the elders into accounts controlled by the suspects. They’d then transfer the money away without the elders knowing about it. They would also encourage victims to withdraw money to hand over to the alleged scammers or have them buy valued items, usually gold, to send to the perpetrators, the indictment said.
In some instances, the alleged scammers would have victims send their money to a UPS access point, where they would retrieve the funds using fake IDs, the indictment said.
Two unnamed elders, both over 60 years old, were identified in the indictment as victims of the Indian-based call center scam. One of the elders was told to send money to a UPS access point in Riverdale, Illinois, where Trusha Chaudhary tried to pick it up and send it to another conspirator, according to the indictment.
Another elder from Salem, Ohio, was directed to withdraw $50,000 from his bank account to hand over to an alleged scammer. At the direction of Shreyas Chaudhary, Raval went to the elder’s house to pick up the money, the indictment said.
Indictments are only charges, and the three suspects haven’t yet been proven guilty in court.
