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Police arrest, charge man for allegedly scamming Hopkinton resident of $10K

by | Dec 21, 2023 | Featured: News, News, Police & Fire

The Hopkinton Police Department on Thursday announced that detectives arrested and charged a New York man who allegedly stole $10,000 from an elderly Hopkinton resident through a well-documented nationwide computer technical support scam.

Minhaj Ismam, a 21-year-old from Jamaica, New York, was arraigned Thursday afternoon at Framingham District Court on charges of larceny from a person 65 or older, larceny of over $1,200 by a single scheme, attempted larceny from a 60-plus or disabled person, and conspiracy.

The Hopkinton resident reported the alleged scam on Wednesday at 10:43 a.m. The resident said they had been contacted the previous day by a person claiming to be a representative of a company that provides computer anti-virus software. The caller allegedly told the resident that he needed to provide a courier with $10,000. The resident also reported that the scammer was able to manipulate the resident’s computer, which contained banking information.

The resident paid the courier and then was contacted again the next day with a second payment request.

Hopkinton police worked with the resident and set up a sting, and they were able to make contact with the courier, later identified as Ismam.

Officers spoke with Ismam and the driver of the vehicle who dropped Ismam at the home. The driver was determined to be an Uber driver who was hired to take Ismam from New York to Massachusetts.

Ismam was arrested and taken to the police station for booking. After being arraigned in Framingham District Court, he was held on $1,000 cash bail and was ordered to have no contact with the victim.

“This is a great example of our patrol officers and Detective Bureau working together to arrest a criminal targeting the elderly.” Detective Sgt. Scott van Raalten stated. “The senior population can be extremely vulnerable to scams, so we ask any resident who feels they may be targeted to call the department at 508-497-3401.”

The police advise residents to not provide personal or financial information through email or over the phone, to enable two-factor authentication whenever possible, to not trust unsolicited emails, to treat email attachments with caution and never click on links in emails unless the sender has been verified, to be careful with what information is shared online or on social media, to not give in to pressure to make a decision immediately, to hang up (and not engage) if a scammer is detected on the phone, and to look up a company’s phone number (don’t use the one a potential scammer is providing) and call the company to ask if a request is legitimate.

2 Comments

  1. Sue Scannell Gilbert

    Kudos to our Police and Detective teams!

    • Ruth Avallone

      He was released?!!! Told not to contact victim. Wow that is a harsh punishment. No incentive to stop. We keep DUI in jail. I forget, how do you spell JUSTICE?

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