Federal prosecutors claim a man who played a central role in a computer malware scheme has been sentenced to two years in jail.
As part of a plan to trick people into thinking that their machines were compromised with ransomware, Manish Kumar, 32, directed telephone calls to call centers in India. According to a statement Friday from the U.S. attorney’s office in Rhode Island, the callers were then convinced to purchase technical support facilities that were never offered.
The casualties were then threatened again by the scammers, officials said. They were informed that unnecessary refunds had been sent, and demanded to pay the overage back. But since the plaintiffs were not necessarily sent any refunds, they were only parting with some of their own money, prosecutors said.
Kumar, an Indian native, confessed to supplying the scam with money routing services and making fraudulent payments on 37 credit cards that were not his, prosecutors said.
In November, Kumar, who was arrested in the United States in 2019, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, and attempted identity theft. He was then sentenced to three years’ probation and ordered $5,000 in restitution to be charged.
