Authorities said a guy from Lackawanna County is accused of defrauding a woman from Lehigh County of almost $3 million by pretending to be a courier in a gold bar scam.
Scranton resident Dharmikkumar J. Sutariya, 25, is accused of three charges of felony criminal use of a communication service, one count of conspiracy to commit theft, one count of receiving stolen property, and two counts of felony theft.
Sutariya is pending arraignment on the allegations, according to court documents. She is being held in Luzerne County at the moment.
The accusations were made public Monday afternoon by Kingston Borough, Luzerne County police, Pennsylvania State Police, and Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin P. Holihan. Sutariya’s attorney information was not immediately visible in court records.
Court documents show that a female victim from Upper Milford Township was involved in occurrences that took place between February and May. Both Lehigh and Luzerne counties were affected by the incidents.
A detective with the Kingston Borough police made contact with the Troop M barracks of the Pennsylvania State Police on June 10. According to investigators, the 68-year-old woman tipped borough police in May that she had been defrauded of $18,000 from her bank account.
The woman claimed that an unidentified individual had purchased thousands of pieces of online pornography using her bank account. According to investigators, the victim was first humiliated and didn’t want to call the police.
Scammers employ this strategy to persuade victims to comply, according to the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office.
Later on in the scam, the victim was notified and given a phone number, requesting that she contact a person she believed to be a fraud agent. According to the DA’s Office, the victim instead had a conversation with a fraudster posing as a Federal Trade Commission representative.
According to officials, the fake agent then told the victim that her bank account had been compromised and that she needed to withdraw all of the money.
According to the DA’s Office, the fraudster then told the victim to purchase gold bars and give them to couriers, who would keep the gold for themselves.
According to authorities, the couriers were actually involved in the purported scheme. According to officials, the victim bought a lot of gold bars between February and May and gave them to the couriers.
Sutariya is charged with going to the victim’s house on May 18, pretending to be a courier, and taking two gold bars from the victim that were worth over $215,400.
The public, particularly senior folks, are being cautioned by Holihan not to divulge personal bank information online or over the phone.
According to the DA, banks and other financial organizations will not call or contact customers for their passwords or account details. Anything valuable and untraceable, such as bitcoin, gift cards, gold, or diamonds, is frequently associated with fraud and won’t be accepted as payment.
Detective John Anthony of Kingston Borough Police and Trooper Francis J. Vanore of Pennsylvania State Police are investigating this crime. Senior Deputy District Attorney Ramma R. Mineo of Lehigh County, who oversees the Elder Abuse Task Force, will prosecute it.
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You can contact Pamela Sroka-Holzmann at [email protected].
