Yarmouth

2 Caught Stealing $109K From Elderly Woman in IT Scam, Police Say

The woman had called a tech support phone number on Friday to ask for help with her computer, according to Yarmouth police, who made the arrests Monday

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Two men were arrested while trying to collect over $100,000 from an elderly woman on Cape Cod in a computer virus scam they tried to pull off over the weekend, police said Wednesday.

The two New Jersey men are accused of demanding the money from the victim, a 78-year-old woman in Yarmouth, to remove unwanted items from on her computer, Yarmouth police said.

The woman had called a tech support phone number on Friday to ask for help with her computer, according to police, who said Nikit S. Yadav, 22, and Raj Vipul Patel, 21, were arrested as they returned to her home Monday to collect the money.

Both men, who share an address in the New York City suburb of Parsippany, New Jersey, were charged with conspiracy and larceny over $1200 by false pretenses, police said. It wasn't immediately clear if they had attorneys who could speak to the charges.

Fortunately the intended victim in this scam didn't lose any money, but bank scams are a common con that often pay off for criminals. Police are now looking for a suspect.

Police didn't specify what the alleged computer virus scheme entailed, but law enforcement across the region have issued warnings about various kinds of scams, including ones that target grandparents and ones that hold computer systems for ransom.

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