Federal authorities filed charges against thirteen people on Tuesday in a takedown of a Dominican-Republic based fraud operation targeting elderly victims by impersonating grandchildren in need of assistance.
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“These scams are not just financially devastating–they are emotionally traumatizing. Many victims lost not only their savings, but their sense of safety, judgment, and trust in the world around them. I am here to say that we’ve had enough. Preying on our elderly is ruthless and immoral,” said District of Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the scheme involved 13 individuals and operated primarily out of call centers based in the Dominican Republic, where alleged scammers successfully targeted at least 400 victims nationwide with an average age of 84.
Scammers allegedly tricked elderly victims out of at least $5 million. The number of victims and amount of money obtained through the alleged fraud scheme are likely higher than the numbers reported, since those only included victims who were identified or who reported the alleged fraud.
Oscar Manuel Castanos Garcia, 33, of the Dominican Republic allegedly headed up the operation, convincing the elderly victims that their grandchildren or other close family members were in danger.
Conspirators allegedly laundered the fraudulently obtained funds back into the Dominican Republic from the U.S.
Castanos Garcia reportedly oversaw the call centers, and hired Dominicans who could speak English with little to no accent to make calls.
Authorities do not believe the scheme involved the use of AI to simulate American accents or impersonate the voices of victims’ relatives, though they warned that AI could make scams more effective in the future.
According to court records, the fraud would begin with an “opener,” who would call pretending to be a grandchild in trouble. Another caller, the “closer” would follow up, pretending to be an attorney and asking for funds
The U.S. Attorney’s Office provided the scripts openers would use when calling grandparents. The script involved the opener claiming to be a grandchild in a U.S. state for a funeral where he was arrested for drunk-driving after crashing into a car that ran a red light. The opener would then ask for funds to pay bail.
The caller would provide the number of someone claiming to be a public defender assigned to the case, and ask the grandparent to keep the situation quiet so as not to embarrass the grandchild.
The scammer, impersonating a grandchild, would then claim that he would pay back the grandparents after he was able to get out of jail.
The alleged fraudsters kept a daily score board showing how much money each person had acquired through the calls.
After convincing a grandparent to hand over money, the alleged scammers would tell them to give cash to U.S-based “runners.” Runners would most often tell victims to leave money with ride-share drivers, who would then deliver the cash to a nearby runner.
In some cases, ride-share drivers would take the elderly victims to the bank so they could withdraw additional funds.
Authorities do not believe that any of the ride-share drivers were knowing participants in fraud.
If scammers were successful, they would allegedly sometimes return to the same victim two to three additional times, claiming that there had been a mix-up or that a pregnant woman had a miscarriage due to the crash.
Court documents included an image of one alleged conspirator apparently celebrating a $189,250 deposit of fraudulently obtained funds with a conspirator in New York, who then reportedly laundered that cash back to Castanos Garcia.
As of Wednesday, nine conspirators, including Castanos Garcia, were in custody, with some arrested by Dominican authorities and awaiting extradition to the U.S. Four suspects remained at large.
The conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud charges carry penalties of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and fines of up to $250,000 or double the amount lost by the victim, whichever is greater.
The money laundering conspiracy charge carries penalties of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and fines of up to $500,000 or twice the amount of laundered funds, whichever is greater.
