Fraudulent attempts in accessing the funds of elderly Social Security recipients has been on the rise and the OIG for the Social Security Administration recently announced that two California men have been indicted for participating in an international conspiracy for allegedly deceiving elderly victims into sending more than $500,000 in cash by pretending to be federal agents who threatened the victims with false claims of warrants against the victims. Despite the fact that these types of fraud cases are on the rise it appears that federal authorities have lately been able to find people responsible for some of these cases to hold them accountable. Below is a press release from the OIG’s office detailing the activities of the alleged perpetrators of the offense.
The federal grand jury indictment unsealed today charges a total of three Lake Elsinore residents with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud:
- Anuj Mahendrabhai Patel, 30, a.k.a. “Mike” and “Indio”;
- Elmer Miranda Barrios, 35, whose aliases include “Welbin Raul Mejia” and “Joe Rodriguez”; and
- William Margarito Barrios, 36, Elmer Barrios’s cousin, who faces an additional charge of being an illegal alien who re-entered the United States following deportation.
Elmer and William Barrios were taken into federal custody today and are expected to be arraigned this afternoon in United States District Court in Riverside. Patel’s arraignment is expected in the coming weeks.
According to court documents, from April 2019 until March 2020, other members of the conspiracy, some of whom are believed to be in India, telephoned victims and pretended to be government employees or law enforcement officers. Using a number of false pretenses – including phony badge numbers and using spoofed government telephone numbers – the co-conspirators convinced the victims, most of whom were over the age of 55, that their identities or assets were in trouble.
For example, some victims were told that their Social Security numbers had been linked to crimes and that there were warrants issued by courts authorizing the victims’ arrests. The co-conspirators further told the victims that in order to clear the warrants, they should withdraw their savings and send cash by mail to other members of the scheme.
The victims were ordered to send the parcels through shipping companies that allowed parcel recipients to pick up parcel so long as the recipients had identification matching the names listed on the parcel as the addressees. The addresses the defendants gave primarily were at locations in Riverside County, but also in Los Angeles and San Diego counties.
Patel allegedly used tracking numbers to monitor the victims’ parcels, and communicated with couriers – Elmer and William Barrios – who used fraudulent identification documents matching the names listed on the parcels as addresses.
For example, in February 2020, Patel allegedly received a UPS parcel containing $10,000 from an 82-year-old victim that was addressed to “Victor Efrain DePaz” in Hemet.
The total loss alleged in this case is approximately $541,420 and the defendants allegedly conspired to receive more than 50 parcels sent by the scheme’s victims.
