Two New York men have been arrested and charged in connection with a scam that defrauded a 71-year-old Brookline woman of $45,000, police said.
Amarjot Singh, 30, and Jaykumar Raval, 20, were arrested on July 2 in Concord, New Hampshire, in connection with a gold bar scam targeting elderly victims. Investigators later linked both men to a separate Brookline fraud case from June and formally charged them on September 2.
Raval is also under investigation for his alleged involvement in another scam that stole nearly $200,000 from elderly women in New York and New Hampshire.
According to police, the Brookline scam began on June 25, when the victim received a suspicious text message claiming an unauthorized Apple Pay charge had occurred. The message provided a fake customer support number for “Apple Security,” which the woman called.
The scammer told her that her personal information had been compromised, claiming six bank accounts had been fraudulently opened in her name and that more than $3,200 had been stolen.
The next day, she received a second call, allegedly from the Federal Trade Commission, saying that $194,000 had been withdrawn from her accounts. The caller advised her to withdraw $45,000 and hand it over to a so-called federal agent in order to protect her remaining assets and set up new accounts.
Believing the call to be legitimate, the woman withdrew the money. On June 26, three men arrived at her apartment in a gray sedan, and she handed them the cash. They promised she’d receive a new Social Security number and bank details within five days.
Days later, after confiding in a friend, the woman realized she had been scammed. She contacted the FBI office in Chelsea and later filed a report with Brookline Police.
Police confirmed that the only funds withdrawn from her accounts were the $45,000 she gave to the imposters.
Following Raval’s arrest in New Hampshire, police searched his phone and connected him to Singh. Both men are now charged with larceny over $1,200. No attorneys have been listed for them in court records, and neither could be reached for comment.
