Queens man charged with scamming $78,000 from 2 Suffolk residents, police say
A Queens man, who allegedly scammed a pair of Suffolk County residents out of a combined $78,000, was arrested Friday in East Islip after bank officials became suspicious about large cash withdrawals, police said.
Jarnail Singh, 21, of 126th Street in South Ozone Park, was charged with third-degree grand larceny and third-degree attempted grand larceny.
He was arraigned Friday afternoon at First District Court in Central Islip and released without bail.
The first of his two alleged computer-based scams began last week when a 77-year-old Amityville man received an email, purportedly from the Geek Squad, reporting a charge of $399, Suffolk police said. The victim called the phone number provided in the email to dispute the charge.
The man who answered the call directed the victim to log into his bank account from his home computer so that the funds could be returned, authorities said. Once the victim logged on, the suspect gained access to the man’s bank accounts and transferred $40,000 from one of his accounts to the other, without the victim realizing what had happened, officials said.
The suspect then convinced the victim that the $40,000 that came from his other account had actually been transferred to him in error from elsewhere and now the victim needed to pay it back in cash, police said.
The suspect picked up $20,000 in cash at the victim’s home on Jan. 29, authorities said. The following day, the victim provided the suspect with $5,000 in gift cards by phone. And on Jan. 31, an additional $20,000 was withdrawn from the victim’s account without his knowledge, police said.
A 74-year-old Bay Shore woman was also the victim of a similar scam on Jan. 31, police said.
The woman met the suspect in a parking lot and gave him $13,000, and the next day was contacted again and told to withdraw an additional $20,000, authorities said.
Officials at the woman's bank became concerned during the second withdrawal and contacted police.
On Friday afternoon shortly before 2 p.m., detectives from the Suffolk County Police Department's Financial Crimes Bureau, along with officers from the Third Precinct, responded to the pickup location — a parking lot on East Main Street in East Islip — and arrested Singh. The $20,000 was intercepted by police.
Singh is due back in court on Feb. 14.
The investigation is continuing. Police said anyone who believes they are a victim of this scam should contact Financial Crimes at 631-852-6821 or Crime Stoppers 800-220-TIPS.
Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.
Updated now Newsday travel writer Scott Vogel took the ferry over to Block Island for a weekend of fun.
Updated now Newsday travel writer Scott Vogel took the ferry over to Block Island for a weekend of fun.
