23-year-old New York man accused of scamming 72-year-old Massachusetts woman out of nearly half a million dollars

NEWTON – Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan and Newton Chief of Police George McMains have announced that Vishal Kumar, 23 of Queens, New York has been arraigned on charges of extortion, larceny over $250 from a person over 60 and conspiracy for allegedly participating in a scheme to extort and defraud a 72-year-old Newton woman out of nearly half a million dollars.

The allegations are that, on or about December 4, 2024, the victim received a telephone call from indviduals claiming to be agents of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).  The callers allegedly told the victim that someone had opened 22 accounts in her name.  They claimed that she was responsible for $2 million dollars  in those accounts,  which was being used in illegal narcotics transactions. When the victim told the “agents” that she had not opened the accounts, she was told that to stop any identity theft, she would have to transfer all her assets to the United States Treasury  and that she would be given Treasury checks to secure those assets.  The victim was informed that,  if she did not cooperate, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) would arrest her.

The victim was subsequently contacted by another caller claiming to be her “case manager” from the United States Treasury.  That person directed her to transfer her money to the Treasury by purchasing gold bars, after which, her social security number would be changed and her money returned. She was directed to buy gold bars and deliver them to couriers at times and locations specified by the caller.

Fearing arrest, over the next month,  the victim liquidated hundreds of thousands of dollars from her retirement account to purchase gold bars. On two separate occasions the victim delivered to a courier sent by the scammers. On December 17, she delivered 12 bars of gold worth approximately $342,000 and then again on December 24, she delivered three bars of gold worth approximately $88,955.43. On December 26, the victim also wired $49,755 to a bank account at the direction of the scammers. The victim was instructed that her that her gold would be secured by Treasury checks.  Although she was sent images from the “agents,” which they represented to be Treasury checks, the victim ultimately lost over $480,000.

Ultimately, the victim’s family learned about what the victim was being coerced into doing and reported it to law enforcement.  After law enforcement learned of the scheme, a sting operation was conducted.  An undercover officer posed as the victim and delivered a package,  which was supposed to contain $165,000 in gold bars, to the defendant, who first confirmed the code-word given to the victim by the imposter posting as federal agent on the telephone. After the defendant confirmed the code-word and took possession of the package, he was arrested by Newton Police detectives and special agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The United States Secret Service later confirmed that the images of the checks were counterfeit.

“This elaborate scheme illustrates several common aspects of these financial scams. The defendant and his alleged co-conspirators used multiple points of contact to build trust, they posed  as official government agents,  assigned a ‘case worker’ in an effort to appear helpful to the victim and even created fake documents to serve as receipts.  Additionally, the perpetrators  sought to strike fear in the victim, using the threat of criminal prosecution to pressure her into making huge financial payments,” said District Attorney Ryan.  “These scams thrive in secrecy.  Fortunately, in this case, the victim and her family were able to enlist the help of law enforcement within a fairly short period of time which put a stop to this exploitation but not before the victim suffered a staggering loss of nearly half a million dollars.”

Vishal Kumar was indicted by a Middlesex County Grand Jury on Feb. 26, 2025.  At his arraignment Kumar was ordered held in lieu of $500,000 cash bail.  The next date in this case is April 2, 2025 for scheduling.

This case was investigated by the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, Newton Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The investigation into the role of co-conspirators is ongoing.

If you are a victim of fraud or attempted fraud you can report it to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3.gov). For more information and tips view the FBI Fraud Alert here: https://www.ic3.gov/Outreach/Brochures/IC3-Fraud-Alert.pdf.

The prosecutor assigned to this case is Graham Van Epps.  The victim witness advocate is Leia Kaplan.