NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) — A Queens man was arrested and arraigned on Friday for scamming tens of thousands of dollars out of two Long Island victims in their 70s by means of a computer scheme, the Suffolk County Police Department said.
Jarnail Singh, 21, of South Ozone Park, was charged with grand larceny and attempted grand larceny. He was arraigned in West Islip.
A 77-year-old man from Amityville received an email, claiming to be from the Geek Squad, reporting a $399 charge.
The victim called the number listed in the email to dispute said charge, and the person who answered told him to log into his bank account from his computer so the money could be returned.
Once the victim was logged into his bank account, the suspect got into the man’s bank account and transferred $40,000 from one of his accounts to another, police said.
The victim didn’t realize what had happened, and the suspect told the 77-year-old that the additional funds were taken by mistake. The scammer then said that the victim needed to provide him with cash.
The suspect picked up $20,000 in cash from the man’s home on Jan. 29, and an additional $5,000 was given in gift cards by phone the next day.
On Jan. 31, $20,000 more was removed from the victim’s bank account, officials said.
A 74-year-old woman from Bay Shore was targeted with the same scam on Jan. 31. When the suspect demanded cash, she met him in a parking lot with $13,000, police said.
She was contacted again on Feb. 1 and told to remove an additional $20,000, at which point bank officials became concerned and contacted police.
Financial Crimes detectives and other officers responded to the pickup location in East Islip and arrested Singh. Police intercepted the $20,000.
The investigation is ongoing.
The Suffolk County police said that anyone who believes that they are the victim of a scam should contact Financial Crimes at 631-852-6821 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS.