In a bit of wonderful news out of the Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino-led Federal Bureau of Investigation, a Dominican Republic-based scammer operation that was targeting seniors in New England has been taken down. The scammers pretended to be grandchildren in need of assistance to target the seniors.
Such is what the United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts announced in a press release describing how thirteen scammers from the Dominican Republic who stole over $5 million from over 400 American grandparents, most of them seniors in the New England area, were taken down by the FBI and DOJ.
Beginning, the statement described the number of scammers caught in the operation and how they operated, providing, “Thirteen individuals have been charged in connection with a transnational elder fraud scheme that allegedly involved a “call center” operation in the Dominican Republic that tricked hundreds of elderly victims in the United States into believing that their grandchildren or other close family members were in trouble and needed money. In total, the investigation identified over 400 victims with an average age of 84, including at least 50 in Massachusetts, and more than $5 million in losses.”
Continuing, it described who the ringleaders of the scamming group were and how they got their money back to the Dominican Republic eventually, saying, “According to the charging documents, the defendants, led by defendant Oscar Manuel Castanos Garcia, ran a sophisticated “call center” operation in the Dominican Republic that tricked hundreds of elderly victims in the United States into believing that their grandchildren and other close family members were in trouble and needed money. Once the defendants obtained the money, they allegedly laundered their illicit proceeds back to the Dominican Republic.”
Adding more detail to how the call centers functioned as scams, with a ringleader overseeing subsets of scam-call makers who played different roles in the operation, the DOJ statement provided, “Castanos Garcia allegedly oversaw call centers in the Dominican Republic, where he employed co-conspirators who spoke English and carried out what are commonly known as “grandparent scams.” These scams would begin with an “Opener” employee, who would call victims and pretend to be a grandson or granddaughter who was in an accident. Then, a “Closer” would allegedly follow up with another call, pretending to be their grandchild’s attorney, asking for a sum of money to pay for their grandchild’s fees due to the accident. Castanos Garcia allegedly ran these call center locations with the help of several managers who allegedly supervised, instructed and paid the employees.”
That part of the operation worked with an American-based collection of scammers who would collect the cash. Describing it, the US Attorney’s statement provided, “As alleged in the indictment, callers for Castanos Garcia’s call centers would instruct elderly victims to provide cash to “runners” in the United States. Most often, the callers would instruct victims to give the packages with cash to rideshare drivers who were ordered to the victim’s house by a runner. The runners would then have the unsuspecting rideshare drivers deliver the packages to the runners at nearby locations. In some cases, the callers would direct the victims to ship packages of cash to specified addresses via mail or commercial carriers.”
That’s not all. Once the scammers found a given grandparent was susceptible to fraud, they targeted them repeatedly: “Often times, the call center would allegedly call victims again and ask for additional funds for their grandchildren, sometimes two or three additional times. For example, callers allegedly would claim that there had been a ‘mix up’ or that a ‘pregnant women’s baby was lost in the crash.’ At times, co-conspirators would allegedly order unwitting rideshare drivers to drive the elderly victims to the bank to withdraw additional funds.”
"*" indicates required fields
As the scammers were involved in both money laundering and wire/mail fraud, they face substantial fines and prison sentences: “The charge of Conspiracy to Commit Mail Fraud and Wire Fraud provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000, or twice the loss to the victim. The charge of money laundering conspiracy provides for up to 20 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $500,000 or twice the amount of laundered funds, whichever is greater. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.”
Commenting on the situation in a statement released via X, Leah B. Foley, the US Attorney for Massachusetts, said, “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. For others committing these types of crimes: we are looking for you, we will find you and we will bring you to justice – no matter where in the world you are located. And to the public listening today: please know that we are here to help protect you. If you believe you have been a victim of this type of scam, please let us know.”
Similarly, FBI Director Kash Patel was quoted by many conservative news-focused accounts across X as having said, “We just took down a transnational call center run by 13 individuals, allegedly cheating hundreds of seniors across our Country out of millions.”
Watch Jesse Watters expose another scandal the Kash Patel-led FBI recently cracked down on here: