Suffolk police arrested a man Wednesday and charged him with scamming two people, including a 72-year-old Huntington woman, out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Arrested was Yash Shah, 25, of Baldwin; police said the scam unfolded this way:
The Huntington resident received a notice on her computer on June 16, informing her that her computer had been compromised and that she needed to contact Microsoft. The victim called who she believed to be Microsoft, and a person told the woman that her computer contained child pornography and porn sites. After numerous conversations, she met a man and gave him $35,000. The woman eventually believed she was being scammed, and filed a police report.
Financial Crimes Unit detectives investigated and determined that Shah was responsible for picking up the money.
After receiving a search warrant for his phone, detectives identified a 73-year-old Kings Park woman was scammed out of approximately $430,000, including $277,000 worth of gold bars on July 20. The woman was also told she had child pornography on her computer. Detectives contacted the woman, who was about to deliver an additional $260,000 to the scammers.
The woman initially did not believe the detectives were from the Suffolk County Police Department and had to be convinced by a family member that she was being scammed.
Detectives believe Shah is working with other people.
Shah was charged with Grand Larceny 2nd Degree, Grand Larceny 3rd Degree, and two counts of Conspiracy 5th Degree. He is scheduled to be arraigned Thursday at First District Court in Central Islip.
Detectives are asking anyone who felt they might have been scammed to contact the Financial Crimes Unit at 631-852-6821.