Two New Jersey brothers are facing criminal charges over allegations they posed as employees at Apple, the FBI and other entities to scam elderly women out of nearly $400,000.
Abhishek Barvalia, 31, and Tushar Barvalia, 32, of Rutherford, New Jersey, are accused of scamming four women out of $392,904 by convincing them that their bank accounts were compromised and to send them their funds for safekeeping, according to Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
To gain the victims’ trust, the scammers allegedly pretended to be an FBI agent, a bank representative and security from technology firms Microsoft and Apple.
In one of the incidents, a 76-year-old victim received a pop-up notification on her computer screen urging her to call a number on the screen, according to the district attorney. When she called, a person on the line pretended to be an FBI agent who told her hackers were using her information for illegal activities including selling drugs, guns and money laundering. She was instructed to secure her savings by transferring money out of her bank accounts and into accounts “controlled by the US government.”
The DA says she withdrew a total of $171,680 in three cashier’s checks and allegedly mailed them to the brothers.
Says Gonzalez,
“These defendants allegedly targeted some of the most vulnerable members of our communities to steal the nest eggs they had carefully built up over many years. Their alleged behavior is despicable, and we will now seek to bring them to justice.”
The duo are facing charges of second-degree grand larceny, first-degree scheme to defraud and fourth-degree conspiracy.
They are out on bail and are due back in court on October 22nd.
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