[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome back, scam fighters and truth seekers to behind the Scams, a show that doesn't just expose deception, it drags it screaming into the light.
I'm Miles, your trusty guide through the underworld of lies, greed and manipulation.
And today, Nick and Sue are diving deep into a story that feels more like a Hollywood thriller than a headline.
We're talking gold bars, fake government agents, terrified seniors, and a courier who thought he could outsmart the feds.
This one has everything.
Fear, betrayal, and a shocking look at how far criminals will go to steal from the most vulnerable among us. So buckle up, because this episode isn't just about catching a crook. It's about understanding how to protect yourself before the next call comes in.
[00:00:51] Speaker B: Welcome back to behind the Scams, the podcast dedicated to pulling back the curtain on the intricate webs of deception that affects so many. I'm your host, Nick.
In today's episode, we're venturing into a particularly dark corner of the criminal world. One that preys on trust, manipulates fear, and leaves financial and emotional devastation in its wake. We're talking about a crime that has become a multibillion dollar industry built on the suffering of some of our most vulnerable citizens.
[00:01:21] Speaker C: And I am, sue and Nick. Today we have a case that is.
Well, it's a tough one.
We're diving into a criminal complaint filed in the Western District of New York against a man named Dhruv Patel.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: That's right. And this isn't some, you know, low level email phishing thing. He's facing federal charges of wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to transport stolen money. Which tells you this was a complex organized operation. This is a massive multi state elder fraud scheme involving millions of doll gold bars and a network of criminals preying on some of our most vulnerable people in our society. The scale is truly industrial.
[00:02:06] Speaker C: It's absolutely heartbreaking.
The document we're working from, it's an FBI affidavit and the details are just staggering.
The level of manipulation is.
It's off the charts.
[00:02:25] Speaker B: So let's set the stage. The scheme itself is, unfortunately, a classic. It starts with a simple phone call or a pop up on a computer. The scammers pretend to be from a company you trust. Think Apple or Etsy or Microsoft.
[00:02:40] Speaker C: Right. A household name. They create a small, believable problem.
Maybe a fraudulent charge on your account or a virus on your laptop, some. Something that makes you panic just a little.
[00:02:54] Speaker B: Exactly. And from there, they escalate. They'll transfer the victim to a supervisor or, and this is the key part, someone pretending to be from a government agency, usually the Federal Trade Commission, the ftc, or even the FBI.
[00:03:09] Speaker C: And that's when the real fear tactics begin. They tell the victim they're a victim of identity theft, or worse, that their own bank accounts are being used for horrific crimes like drug trafficking or child pornography.
[00:03:25] Speaker B: And they sound completely professional, completely convincing. They tell the victim that to protect their money, to help law enforcement catch the real criminals, they need to withdraw all of their savings, every last cent.
[00:03:39] Speaker C: And then hand it over for safekeeping, either in cash or. Or sometimes they even instruct them to convert it into gold bars.
[00:03:49] Speaker B: Which brings us to Dhruv Patel. Patel wasn't the guy on the phone. He was what law enforcement calls a money mole. He was the courier. The guy who shows up at a 75 year old's house to pick up their life savings in a shoebox.
[00:04:04] Speaker C: The face to face component of this is just so brazen.
[00:04:09] Speaker B: It is. And the story of how they caught him. It starts with the first victim listed in this complaint. Lets call her victim one. She's a 71 year old woman from upstate New York.
[00:04:20] Speaker C: Okay, so what happened to her?
[00:04:24] Speaker B: Her story starts with a call to someone she thinks works for Etsy. The Etsy employee tells her about some purchases she didn't make, then transfers her to a man calling himself Patrick Marshall from the ftc.
[00:04:38] Speaker C: Ah, there's the escalation.
[00:04:40] Speaker B: Yep. Patrick spins the whole identity theft, compromised accounts and tells her to withdraw her savings so his co worker can pick it up. And at first she does. She goes to the bank and takes out some money.
[00:04:55] Speaker C: Oh no.
[00:04:57] Speaker B: But here's where the story turns. She talks to her relatives and they raise the alarm. They tell her it sounds like a scam. So instead of handing over the money, she calls the Colony New York Police Department.
[00:05:11] Speaker C: Thank goodness for her family.
So the police get involved.
[00:05:17] Speaker B: They do, and they set up a sting operation. They tell victim one to play along. She calls Patrick back and says she has $48,000 in cash ready for pickup.
[00:05:27] Speaker C: Wow, that must have been nerve wracking for her.
[00:05:31] Speaker B: I can't even imagine. So Patrick gives her instructions. Package the money, and he gives her a password, 0388 that the driver will use as a quote, security measure.
[00:05:44] Speaker C: The irony of calling that a security measure. Unbelievable, right?
[00:05:50] Speaker B: So on May 13, 2024 police officers are staked out near victim one's house. And sure enough, a gray Dodge Charger with Texas plates pulls up the driver and sole occupant, Dhruv Patel.
[00:06:05] Speaker C: They got him.
[00:06:07] Speaker B: They got him. They arrest him on the spot. And get this. On the front seat of his car is a tablet, unlocked, with a WhatsApp chat open.
On the screen is a picture of victim one's house and a text that reads.
[00:06:22] Speaker C: Let me guess.
Password?0388.
[00:06:26] Speaker B: You got it. A complete smoking gun.
[00:06:29] Speaker C: So what does he say when they interview him? Does he confess?
[00:06:32] Speaker B: He does, sort of. He admits he was there to pick up the 48 grand. He even gives up the names of some co conspirators. He says, and I'm quoting to affidavit, I did think that I was doing wrong and knew it was strange.
[00:06:48] Speaker C: You think driving across state lines to pick up a box of cash from an elderly woman seems just a little strange?
[00:06:57] Speaker B: He claimed he'd only done it like three or four times before.
And his payment? He said he was doing it to have three to $4,000 of a gambling debt forgiven.
[00:07:08] Speaker C: So for a few thousand bucks, he's helping steal tens, maybe hundreds of thousands. The math doesn't really add up for him, does it?
[00:07:17] Speaker B: Well, we'll get into that. But for this first arrest, he was charged by New York State and eventually sentenced to five years probation.
But here's the thing, Sue. This was just the tip of the iceberg. This one arrest allowed police to get search warrants for his phones and tablet. And what they found, well, it blew the case wide open.
[00:07:40] Speaker C: So there were more victims?
[00:07:42] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Let's talk about victim 2. A 71 year old resident of Connecticut. Her story also starts with a call she thought was to Etsy. Same playbook. She gets transferred to guys calling themselves Harvey Smith and Ian Korenzo from the ftc.
[00:07:59] Speaker C: And they tell her her accounts are compromised.
[00:08:02] Speaker B: Worse. They first accuse her of money laundering, then they say her accounts are compromised and she needs to hand over her savings for safekeeping.
[00:08:12] Speaker C: That is just evil. Accuse the victim of a crime to scare them into compliance.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: And it worked. Over the course of seven separate pickups. Seven times, victim two gave them a total of approximately $1.1 million.
[00:08:30] Speaker C: 1.1 million.
My God.
[00:08:36] Speaker B: How?
Sometimes cash. But they also directed her to convert cash into 1 kg gold bars.
On one day, May 8, 2024, she converted over $316,000 into four gold bars and placed them in the car of a courier who came to her house.
[00:08:56] Speaker C: And let me guess who the courier was.
[00:08:59] Speaker B: Well, this pickup was five days before his arrest in New York. And on that tablet, they ceased from him.
Police found the whole thing laid out in his WhatsApp chats.
The victim's address in Connecticut. Him messaging on the way.
[00:09:14] Speaker C: No way.
[00:09:15] Speaker B: Oh yeah, they sent him a full description. Cus name. Victim two's name.
MF. Female. Age 70.
Car, Honda Accord.
Gray clothes, light green T shirt and black short.
[00:09:35] Speaker C: That's so chillingly specific.
[00:09:38] Speaker B: There.
[00:09:38] Speaker C: Watching her.
[00:09:39] Speaker B: And then about half an hour after he got that message, Patel sends a photo back to his co conspirators. It's a picture of four 1 kg gold bars sitting on the center console of his car.
[00:09:53] Speaker C: He documented his own crime. So they had him dead to rights on that one too.
[00:09:58] Speaker B: Completely. And it keeps going. Victim three, a 77 year old from Pennsylvania.
This time the lure was an AppleCare service number she found on Google.
[00:10:09] Speaker C: So many different angles of attack.
[00:10:12] Speaker B: Right. They told her there was a problem with her Wells Fargo account, transferred her to a fake bank fraud guy, and you know the rest. She ended up giving them over half a million dollars.
[00:10:26] Speaker C: $500,000. I just. I can't wrap my head around these numbers.
[00:10:32] Speaker B: And again, they find the evidence on Patel's phone. This one was just a few days after the gold bar pickup on May 10. He was sent to collect about 134,000 in cash from her. And the WhatsApp messages are even more detailed this time. How so? They send him her full name, address, date of birth, age, hair color red.
What she was wearing. Black top and blue jeans. And even a password. Lily.
[00:11:05] Speaker C: It's like an intelligence dossier for a criminal operation.
[00:11:09] Speaker B: It is.
And later in the day, they updated the password to Daisy Flower. And even updated her clothing description to include a winter coat, black. Black Skechers shoes. They were clearly on the phone with her, feeding this information to Patel in real time. They even sent him pictures of the cardboard box full of cash that the victim had packed up from.
[00:11:33] Speaker C: So with all this evidence from his first arrest, the case seems pretty solid. But the document mentions a confidential source. Who was that?
[00:11:41] Speaker B: Okay, this is where it gets really interesting. This is where we learn about Patel's mindset. The FBI in Milwaukee had a confidential Source call him CS1, who was involved in other financial crimes and was seeking leniency. This is very common in federal cases, by the way. It's how agents often get an inside look at these organizations. CS1 met Patel through a mutual acquaintance.
[00:12:10] Speaker C: And Patel tried to recruit him.
[00:12:12] Speaker B: He did. He was looking for more people to collect cash and gold. So starting in June 2024, this is after his first arrest, mind you, CS1 starts having recorded video calls with Patel.
[00:12:27] Speaker C: Wait, so he gets arrested, gets probation, and then just keeps going.
[00:12:33] Speaker B: Not only keeps going, he brags about it. He tells CS1 he's done over 60 pickups in six years, including picking up five kilograms of gold and lack wax in Pennsylvania and another $40,000 in Edison, New Jersey. He admits he was arrested, but says the organization still trusts him and even paid for his lawyers.
[00:12:56] Speaker C: Wow. The audacity.
[00:12:58] Speaker B: He offers CS1 courier jobs, promising to pay for flights, hotels, and a rental car, plus 2% commission on any pickup. He also told CS1 about jobs that were canceled because a victim's jewelry store or bank got suspicious and. And refused the transaction. He offered him one job in California to pick up $2.4 million in gold. The payout for CS1 would have been $40,000.
[00:13:26] Speaker C: 2%. So Patel and the guys at the top are taking the other 98%.
[00:13:33] Speaker B: That's right. But get this. In his conversations with CS1, he let it slip that his own commission was double. That he was getting a 4% cut of everything he picked up. So he's offering the new guy 2% and pocketing the other 2% for himself on top of his own 4%. He's not just a mule. He's a manager, a recruiter, and he's taking a cut from his downline. This is a classic pyramid structure in a criminal organization. Right. He's still just a cog in the machine, but a highly active one. And he explains his whole system to CS1. How to avoid getting caught. He talks about doing surveillance on the pickup location beforehand, finding alternate routes.
He has a system, a whole methodology. He says he once got away with a $1.7 million job, but got caught on the $40,000 one because he forgot to surveil the pickup spot.
[00:14:33] Speaker C: So he blames his arrest on a mistake, not on the fact that he's, you know, committing a felony.
[00:14:40] Speaker B: Exactly. And he tells CS1 how to create plausible deniability.
This is. This is really something.
He explains that if police stop a courier, the courier should just say, a friend asked for a pickup as a favor, and they have no idea what's in the packet.
[00:14:59] Speaker C: The I'm just a delivery boy defense.
[00:15:02] Speaker B: Right. But he has a rule to back this up. He requires the victim to place the package into his vehicle through the rear window. He says this way, no matter who is watching, the courier is not considered committing a crime because he or she is not handling the package at all.
[00:15:22] Speaker C: That is some twisted logic. He's trying to create a legal loophole for his mules.
[00:15:29] Speaker B: It's a deliberate Strategy to obstruct justice. He believes that if the courier never touches the package, they can claim complete innocence. It's insane.
[00:15:40] Speaker C: While all these conversations are being recorded by the FBI's source, is Patel still doing pickups?
[00:15:46] Speaker B: Yes. Which leads us to victim four and another sting operation. This is in the Western District of New York. A 70 year old this time.
[00:15:57] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:15:58] Speaker B: Her story starts with a fraudulent 150 charge from Venmo. She calls the number listed, gets roped in, and is eventually contacted by Jamie Morris from the ftc.
Jamie tells her that her bank accounts are tied to drug and child pornography trafficking and she needs to withdraw all her money, about $587,000, and convert it to gold.
[00:16:23] Speaker C: They just keep using that same disgusting tactic. So what happened?
[00:16:29] Speaker B: Well, this time a hero emerges. The owner of the jewelry and coin exchange in Rochester where she went to buy the gold. He recognizes the signs of an elder fraud scam and contacts the FBI special agent in charge of this whole case.
[00:16:44] Speaker C: Oh, wow, that's amazing. An aware citizen.
[00:16:48] Speaker B: Absolutely. So the agent meets victim four at the store and explains what's happening. And she agrees to help with another sting. They have her send photos of fake gold bars to Jamie, who then arranges for a pickup at her house.
[00:17:05] Speaker C: So they're setting the trap again.
[00:17:07] Speaker B: Exactly. Jamie instructs her to put the box of gold on the hood of her car in the driveway. And guess what kind of car the FBI observes pulling up to the house?
[00:17:18] Speaker C: A gray Dodge Charger.
[00:17:19] Speaker B: You know it. Patel gets out, walks to the car, grabs the box from the hood, and turns around to find a team of law enforcement officers waiting for him. Busted again.
[00:17:31] Speaker C: This guy's learning curve is completely flat. What's his excuse this time?
[00:17:36] Speaker B: Same story. He was just picking up a package for some guys to have a few thousand dollars of his gambling debt forgiven. He admits that after his first arrest he was aware he was part of a fraud fraudulent scheme. But he claims he didn't believe this specific pickup was fraudulent.
[00:17:53] Speaker C: Oh, come on, that's absurd. It's the exact same mo.
[00:17:57] Speaker B: Of course it's a ridiculous defense, but it shows his mindset and it shows the scope of this operation. Because he's not just a courier anymore. The evidence shows that he's also moved up. He's become a coordinator.
[00:18:11] Speaker C: What do you mean?
[00:18:13] Speaker B: Well, let's look at victim 5. A 75 year old in Denver, Colorado. This one starts with a fake Microsoft virus alert on her laptop. Same script, different actors. She's told scammers are trying to break into her accounts and is directed to convert her funds to gold for safeguarding.
[00:18:32] Speaker C: This one is just. The scale of the loss is horrifying.
The document says she. She gave them $2.6 million.
[00:18:43] Speaker B: 2.6 million.
It's a staggering amount of money. And in this case, Patel wasn't the one making the pickup in Colorado. He was the middleman back in New Jersey coordinating it. How did they figure that out? From the Motorola phone they seized during his second arrest.
On it, they found screenshots of flight. Flight itineraries for another conspirator. Let's call him subject to flying from Dallas to Denver. A car rental reservation in Denver.
[00:19:14] Speaker C: He was the travel agent for the crime, essentially.
[00:19:18] Speaker B: They also found the WhatsApp chats where the boss, subject 1, is sending Patel the victim's description. Red v neck top, blue jeans, silver hoop earrings and sunglasses. They sent him a picture of her antique Oldsmobile in her garage.
Then a video of Subject 2, The Mule, opening a box of gold bars. And finally, a Screenshot of Subject 2's flight back to Dallas that same evening.
[00:19:46] Speaker C: So he was managing the logistics for other couriers.
[00:19:50] Speaker B: Which is exactly what he admitted to CS1. After his second arrest, he gets on another call with the confidential source and says he's trying to stay underground, but he's still connected. And now working as an intermediary, splitting the commission.
[00:20:06] Speaker C: He cannot stop. It's like a compulsion.
[00:20:10] Speaker B: He literally says to CS1, if you want to be a courier, you would not be the scammer. It is they who are. And then he says his co conspirators are, and this is a direct quote, making a fool of the white guys.
[00:20:26] Speaker C: Ah, the callousness is just.
There are no words. He sees it as a game.
[00:20:35] Speaker B: He does. He keeps trying to recruit CS1 for jobs in San Diego, Houston, Tampa. At one point, he sends CS1 a picture of himself sitting in a car holding a huge stack of cash he just picked up.
[00:20:50] Speaker C: The affidavit includes those pictures, right?
It's unbelievable. He's posing for the camera.
[00:20:56] Speaker B: He is fanning out the bills, smiling. And the best part is that his face and his tattoos are clearly visible. And the police were able to match them to the tattoos they saw on him during his first arrest. It's just a master class in self incrimination.
[00:21:14] Speaker C: So what does he even do with the money he gets? I mean, his cut must be substantial.
[00:21:22] Speaker B: Well, he told CS1 he'd made about 80 to $90,000 in the last eight months alone. More than he'd earned. In 21 years in America. And the affidavit details the money laundering. They found his Wells Fargo account.
[00:21:36] Speaker C: And he's just depositing cash.
[00:21:40] Speaker B: Dozens of cash deposits, thousands of dollars at a time. A total of about 4,49,000 is listed here. Then he uses that money for a number of transferring funds to a DraftKings account, sending money via Zelle and buying from a jewelry store. All common ways criminals try to obscure the source of illegal cash.
[00:22:01] Speaker C: So he's stealing from the elderly to fund a gambling habit and buy jewelry.
It's just so sordid.
[00:22:11] Speaker B: It is.
And when you add it all up, the total amount stolen from just these five victims mentioned in this document is over $4.8 million.
[00:22:22] Speaker C: And that's just five people. Patel himself said he'd done over 60 pickups. The true number has to be astronomical.
[00:22:33] Speaker B: It does. It's a massive criminal enterprise. And Dhruv Patel, while maybe not at the very top, was, was a key, trusted and incredibly active part of it. His actions directly led to people losing their entire life savings.
[00:22:48] Speaker C: It's just so devastating.
I think maybe this is a good time to talk about what people can do. How can our listeners or their parents or their grandparents protect themselves from this?
[00:23:02] Speaker B: That's the most important takeaway here.
And the number one rule, the absolute golden rule is this.
No legitimate company or government agency will ever, ever call you and ask you to withdraw cash or buy Gold Bar ever.
[00:23:21] Speaker C: That should be the biggest, brightest red flag. The FBI, the ftc, Apple, Microsoft, they do not operate that way. They, they will not ask you for money or gift cards over the phone.
[00:23:35] Speaker B: Never.
And if you get a call like this, even if the caller ID looks legitimate, because that can be faked, just hang up, don't engage, don't argue, just hang up the phone.
[00:23:47] Speaker C: And if you're worried there might actually be a problem with one of your accounts, you be the one to initiate the contact.
Look up the official customer service member for your bank or the company on, on their official website, not from a pop up or an email. And call them directly.
[00:24:04] Speaker B: That's a great point. And talk to your family. Look at what happened with victim one. Her relatives saved her from losing everything.
If you have elderly parents or grandparents, have this conversation with them. Tell them about these scams. Make a plan, maybe even have a code word for when they get a suspicious call.
[00:24:23] Speaker C: That's a really good idea.
The scammers create a sense of urgency and panic. They try to isolate the victim and tell them not to talk to anyone. That's a tactic. Breaking that isolation by calling a trusted family member is the best defense it.
[00:24:41] Speaker B: Is in the end. This case against Dhruv Patel is a stark reminder of how sophisticated and ruthless these operations are. They are psychological predators, but thanks to some quick thinking victims, observant family members, an honest business owner, and good police work, at least one piece of this criminal machine has been brought to justice.
[00:25:03] Speaker C: A story with a lot of tragedy, but also some heroes along the way.
[00:25:08] Speaker B: Definitely. Well, that's all the time we have for this episode of behind the Scams. Stay vigilant, talk to your loved ones. And remember, if it sounds too strange to be true, it is. Hang up the phone.
[00:25:21] Speaker C: Before we close out this episode, I wanted to mention that we have resource links to help avoid scams like this on our
[email protected] just look for this episode on our site and you will find these important links in the episode description. Until next time, stay safe and stay scam free. Bye for now.
[00:25:42] Speaker A: And that, folks, is another wild ride. Behind the Scams what started with a simple phone call turned into a multimillion dollar operation built on fear, fraud and greed with gold at its core.
If your heart's still pounding, good, it means you're paying attention.
Because these stories aren't just cautionary tales, they're real and they're happening every day.
If you learned something today, share this episode with someone you care about, because awareness is the antidote to deception.
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[email protected] and listen anytime on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, iHeartRadio, and Pandora. Until next time, I'm Miles reminding you to stay smart, stay skeptical, and always stay scam free.
