In the Southern District of New York, a verdict was pronounced for Vinota Ponmaran for his participation in a fraudulent technical support scheme that deceived more than 6,500 victims in the USA and Canada. The court sentenced Ponmaran to seven years in prison. This announcement was made by the prosecutor of the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams.
Ponmaran was the leader of a complex fraudulent scheme aimed at deceiving the elderly. By gaining remote access to their computers, he convinced victims to pay for non-existent technical support services. The scheme generated over $6 million in criminal income.
From March 2015 to July 2018, Ponmaran was part of a criminal group based in the USA and India. The attackers convinced victims that their computers were infected with malicious software, leading them to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for false computer repair services.
The scheme operated by displaying pop-up windows on victims’ screens, claiming their devices were infected with a virus. Victims were urged to call a provided number for technical support. In some cases, victims were threatened that restarting or disconnecting their computers could lead to serious damage and data loss. To appear legitimate, some pop-up windows used logos of famous tech companies without authorization. However, there were no actual viruses, and the technical support numbers were not related to legitimate companies.
Ponmaran played a significant role in the criminal scheme by managing the call center in India that provided fake technical support services. He also recruited individuals in the US to set up fake businesses and bank accounts to receive money from victims. Ponmaran laundered the funds by transferring them to accounts in India and the USA.
In addition to serving his prison sentence, the 36-year-old Indian citizen Ponmaran must pay over $6 million as compensation for the damages caused. His accomplices, Roman Leiva and Arithul Hak, were convicted in 2022 after pleading guilty. Leiva was sentenced to 100 months in prison and ordered to return over $4.5 million and pay over $2.7 million in compensation. Hak received a year and a day in prison and was ordered to repay over $38,000 and pay over $470,000 in compensation.