Another Oregon couple has fallen victim to an FBI imposter scam — this time a West Linn couple who had lost about $279,000 by the time law enforcement got involved and made an arrest.
Navjot Singh, 34, was arrested outside the couple’s home Friday night. He’s charged with conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud in federal court.
He’s the latest charged in a scam that the FBI is investigating nationwide. Earlier this year, federal agents arrested another person accused of duping a Salem man into turning over about $90,000 in gold bars.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Kerin described the alleged scammers as a “group of predatory locusts” who target vulnerable people, though he said the full extent of the alleged scam and number of victims are unknown.
“Defendant is part of a criminal group extorting elderly citizens under the threat that their assets will be seized, that they were in danger, and that they could even be arrested – it was all a destructive scam,” Kerin wrote to the court. “The victims in this immediate case were scared out of their wits that their assets would be seized.”
In early June, a West Linn man in his late 70s had his computer screen suddenly go dark and a number popped up with a message instructing him to call it, FBI agent Craig Robinson wrote in an affidavit.
The West Linn man was transferred to someone claiming to be an FBI agent named John Stryker, according to the affidavit.
The imposter told the West Linn man that he and his wife were “in danger” and needed to maintain constant contact to protect themselves, according to the affidavit.
Following the imposter’s instructions, the man downloaded a program to his computer, was told it was being taken over remotely and that he was now part of a confidential “National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force” investigation.
The couple was told their financial assets were at risk, and “that hostile actors could seize their assets or their assets could be frozen by the IRS, the affidavit said.
The imposter, via phone and text messages, convinced the couple to share their personal information and bank statements with him and to buy gold bars, package them in a cardboard box and an “agent” would come and collect them to transport the gold to an FBI secure vault, though no such vault exists, the affidavit said.
On June 17, the couple made a wire transfer through their bank account to buy $279,475 in gold bars. The gold bars were shipped to the Portland Gold Exchange store and “Stryker” scheduled a pickup at their West Linn house on June 22, according to the affidavit.
The victim’s wife did as instructed, placing a box holding the gold bars through a rear window and into the back seat of a white Jeep Wrangler that pulled up outside the home, the affidavit said.
“The victims absolutely believed that they were in very real physical danger and that all of their retirement money was at risk,” Kerin wrote in a motion to keep Singh in custody.
At one point, “Stryker” told the couple that he had drones that were keeping an eye on their home to make sure they were safe. In one conversation, the imposter told them he knew they were having some work done on their backyard fence, so they believed they were being watched, Kerin wrote to the court.
The couple contacted the real FBI on July 3 after hearing once more from “Stryker,” who directed them to buy another $193,000 in gold bars and he would schedule another pickup, the affidavit said.
This time, they arranged a pickup for Friday and FBI agents, working with West Linn police, were ready to move in to make an arrest.
The woman resident walked out to the black BMW X1 SUV that pulled up in front of the home, placed a decoy package in the back seat through a rear window and when the car sped off and turned, a marked West Linn police car pulled it over, the affidavit said.
The driver, Singh, was arrested, police said. Investigators found a Delta Airlines ticket in the car in Singh’s name, showing he had flown into Portland earlier that day from Atlanta, the affidavit said. Singh gave investigators changing stories of what brought him to Portland, according to the affidavit.
Investigators learned Singh is a citizen of India who is in the United States on a work visa though he told agents he is unemployed, according to Kerin. He was last living in South Carolina, court records indicate.
After Singh’s arrest, the West Linn couple received repeated “urgent” messages from “Stryker” asking them to contact him.
Ultimately, the couple blocked his number, Robinson wrote in the affidavit.
Singh remains in custody at the Multnomah County Detention Center on a federal hold.
On May 30, the FBI working with Salem Police arrested another man, Ramaraj Ganesan, 39, of California, on a similar federal conspiracy charge. He’s accused of driving to a Salem man’s home to pick up a package containing thousands of dollars worth of gold. Ganesan remains in custody.
The FBI in Portland last month put out an alert that such scams have increased. They advise that federal agencies do not call or email people threatening arrest or demanding money. Scammers often spoof caller ID information to make it appear the call is coming from a federal agency’s legitimate phone number. Recipients should hang up immediately and report the call, according to the FBI.
According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center, 14,190 people reported being victims of government impersonation scams in 2023, with losses totaling more than $394 million. In Oregon, such financial losses from government impersonation scams exceeded $1.7 million last year, according to the FBI. In 2023, almost half the victims reported to be over 60.
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