Phone Scam: Four Plead Guilty, Naperville Residents Lost $88,000

NAPERVILLE, IL — Four people have been sentenced for participating in a nationwide fraud and money-laundering scam after pleading guilty. Naperville residents were affected by the crime, totaling 16 victims in the city.

Nisarg Patel, 26, most recently of Flemington, N.J.; Dilipkumar R. Patel, 30, of Ocala, Fla.; and Rajesh Kumar, 39, of Mesa, Ariz., all pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering offenses, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office Southern District of Texas, the Naperville Sun reported.

Dipakkumar S. Patel, 38, most recently of Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty to a related charge of one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering in Georgia, according to the Sun.

Naperville Police Cmdr. Lou Cammiso told the Sun that residents of the city who were victimized were scammed out of a total of about $88,000. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

The scammers impersonated officials of the IRS and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration services, Cammiso said. The local detective assigned to the case had been working on it for three years with federal investigators.

Victims were convinced to wire money or purchase stored value cards.

A total of 56 people, and five call centers in India, were involved in the scheme. "Runners" in the U.S. purchased money orders with the stolen funds and deposited them into bank accounts.

Article image via Shutterstock