Feds charge 13 in scheme that targeted grandparents across the US
"Their goal," according to Leah B. Foley, the U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts, "was to trick our parents, grandparents, neighbors, and friends into handing over their life savings on false pretenses. And they succeeded."
Of the 13 people charged in federal court in Massachusetts, nine are in custody, according to the Department of Justice. Two of the suspected scammers are at large in the United States and two in the Dominican Republic, Christina Sterling, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office, said at a news conference on Aug. 12.
Charges against the 13 include conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, and money laundering conspiracy, prosecutors said. The suspected scammers face potentially decades in prison if found guilty.
At least one has already pleaded guilty.
'Ringleader' in custody
In addition to the FBI, the Justice Department's Office of International Affairs participated in the investigation, as well as Dominican agencies, including the Dominican National Police. Dominican authorities said the arrests were the result of a two-year investigation.
Among the nine in custody is Oscar Manuel Castanos Garcia, the chief operator of the call centers. Sterling, the U.S. Attorney's Office spokesperson, described him as a "ringleader" and said he was arrested on Aug. 12 in the Dominican Republic.
Castanos Garcia, 33, is suspected of directing scammers to follow a script in their calls that would lead the victim to believe that their loved one was making a call from jail after a car accident and needed money to post bail, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. He operated call centers out of residential homes in Santiago de los Caballeros and Puerto Plata.
"I was granted a 5-minute phone call, and I called you because I know you can help me," a script shared by the Department of Justice reads. "Please, promise that you will keep this between us until I get out, I am ashamed about this."
The script directed callers to hang up by telling the victim, "I love you."
Callers obtained information about their victims through the dark web, according to a federal affidavit. Castanos Garcia and a few others were arrested in the Dominican Republic and are expected to be extradited.
Money went towards 'luxury purchases'
The grandparent fraud schemes depend on several operators playing key roles, from "openers" who make the initial call to older adults to "runners" who collect the cash from victims and launder it back to the Dominican Republic, according to Justice Department officials.
Operators kept a "scoreboard" at call centers showing how much money each "opener" and "closer" pairing made, prosecutors said. The closer is responsible for making the second call to victims. In the Massachusetts case, operators posed as public defenders who told victims how much "bail money" they had to pay.
Sometimes, call center operators would call back multiple times to demand greater sums of money, making claims including that a baby had been lost in the car accident, Justice Department officials said. The money furnished lavish lifestyles for call center operators.
Castanos Garcia spent the money on "upgrades to his home and luxury purchases," including a boat, court documents said. Photographs included in a federal affidavit show Castanos Garcia sitting in a hot tub aboard a yacht.
Growing scheme
The grandparent scam case in Massachusetts, which included at least 50 victims, is the latest in the growing field of elder fraud. FBI officials announced in June that older adults across the United States reported nearly $4.89 billion in losses due to fraud schemes, including grandparent scams.
The sum represents a 43% increase in losses from 2023, according to the FBI.
According to data from the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, there were 147,127 complaints of elder fraud in 2024, a 46% increase from 2024, the FBI said.
Among recent schemes, a federal grand jury indicted a man from the Dominican Republic in March in connection with a scheme to defraud five people of $50,000, USA TODAY previously reported. Luis Alfonso Bisono Rodriguez, a citizen of the Caribbean nation living in Cleveland, played all the parts of the scam from opener to runner. He pleaded not guilty in July.
"Elder fraud is a growing problem and a shameful crime," Kimberly Milka, acting special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston Division, said in a release about elder fraud. "Not only does it rob an already vulnerable population of their sense of security, but it leaves them with devastating financial losses."
Older adults are targeted because they are often seen as more trusting and also less likely to report being scammed, federal officials said.
People can report elder fraud scams by emailing USAMA.VictimAssistance@usdoj.gov, calling 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), or online at the FBI's IC3 Elder Fraud Complaint Center.
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