Indian college intern sentenced to 60 months for providing tech support to telemarketing scam

Washington: An Indian college intern in the US has been sentenced to five years in prison for providing tech support to a telemarketing fraud scheme that duped about two dozen senior citizens of their retirement savings amounting to nearly $1 million.

Bishwajeet Kumar Jha, 21, the ringleader of a group of Indian college students doing hospitality industry internships in the US, defrauded senior citizens aged between 58 years to 93 years. The victims were duped of their retirement savings ranging between $1,180 and $1,74,300, the Department of Justice said on Monday.

Jha will face deportation proceedings upon the completion of his term of incarceration, it said.

Over three months, the conspiracy defrauded individuals of at least $9, 37,280, according to justice department officials. Federal prosecutors allege that the nearly two dozen victims, who believed that they had purchased technology support, were led to believe that money had been erroneously refunded to their bank accounts by the tech support company.