North Lebanon Township police, with assistance from the Lebanon County Detective Bureau and North Cornwall Township police, arrested two New Jersey men this week in a surveillance operation after they had allegedly stolen $24,000 from a local couple in their 70s – and then drove to Lebanon thinking they’d get $30,000 more.
In a press release Wednesday, Jan. 24, the North Lebanon Township Police Department described an incident that came on their radar Monday, Jan. 22, when they received a call from a couple who live in the Briar Lake Development regarding a suspected scam.
Police learned from the couple that they had received a message on their computer purporting to be from Microsoft and indicating that their bank account had been compromised. They were instructed to provide bank account information and send money through a Bitcoin ATM to save their money.
Police said the victims then sent $24,000 through a Bitcoin machine while the scammers stayed in touch with them throughout the process and gave them step-by-step instructions on effecting the transfer of funds.
By the time the couple reached out to police, they had been told an additional $30,000 was required and that someone would come to their house on Tuesday, Jan. 23 to retrieve the money.
North Lebanon Township police arranged for a surveillance detail with assistance from the Lebanon County Detective Bureau and North Cornwall Township police. Police said that in a phone call, the victims were told that a vehicle would be arriving at their house for the money, and there were instructed to package the cash in a sealed box and toss the parcel into the back seat of a car through an open window upon its arrival.
Around noon Tuesday, a white Nissan sedan with New Jersey plates rolled up to the house, where the pickup went precisely as planned, or so they thought. The box was deposited into the rear seat of the vehicle, which then drove off … before being stopped a short distance from the house so that police could take the occupants into custody, which they did without incident.
Police identified the suspects as 25-year-old Hemal Arvindbhai Patel and 21-year-old Digvijaysinh Jagdishsinh Chauhan, both of Iselin, New Jersey. Each man now faces a pair of felony charges, theft by deception and criminal conspiracy to commit theft by deception, and could face years in prison if convicted.
Patel and Chauhan are being held at Lebanon County Correctional Facility in lieu of bail, which was set at $300,000 during an arraignment Tuesday in front of Magisterial District Judge Maria Dissinger. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 1, in front of Magisterial District Judge Kim Wolfe.
North Lebanon Township police took this opportunity to offer a reminder to the public not to give personal information to anyone over the phone or computer.
“With current technology, it is easy to fall victim to these types of scams,” cautioned the department. “If someone is requesting that you go to a local store and purchase pre-paid card(s) or place cash or a debit card into a bitcoin or similar machine, this should be a red flag.”
The department noted that anonymous Bitcoin payments are not a normal payment method for legitimate businesses.
“If this occurs, you should contact your local police department.”
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