US: Indian-origin woman posing as federal agent dupes man of $1.5 million

An Indian-origin woman residing in the United States was arrested in connection with a multi-state gold bar scam in which individuals guised as federal agents tricked people into buying gold bullion only to hand it over to secure storage and in turn be cheated upon.

The scam came to light after 42-year-old Shweta Patel was taken into police custody on May 9.

The scam made a man from Bradenton, Florida suffer a huge loss of a whopping $1.5 million, as per TOI report.

The sequence of events

The fraud began earlier this year, in the month of February when two imposters, pretending to be federal agents, showed up at the victim's house with a fake arrest warrant alleging financial irregularities.

Following this, they invited their supervisor who somehow underlined the victim's potential emphasising how he could serve society better in ways other than being locked up.

Then in March, this particular conman guised as a "supervisor" communicated with the victim on a daily basis in order to build up trust. He then eventually convinced the victim into thinking that he was a part of a sting operation aimed at targeting social security fraud.

The victim was then tricked into converting his retirement savings, worth $1.5 million into gold bars.

After this, Shweta Patel, posing as a police officer, took the gold bars from his place and disappeared.

Reportedly, such scams are common among illegal immigrants hailing from countries like India and China.

(With inputs from agencies)