Indian held in anti-virus scam

US PROSECUTORS in Manhattan charged an Indian man with helping to run a scheme that defrauded thousands of victims into buying unnecessary computer anti-virus protection by falsely claiming that malware had infected their machines.

Vinoth Ponmaran, 34, was arrested on July 15 in Blaine, Washington. He was ordered tobe held in custody after a brief hearing last Wednesday (20) in Seattle federal court.

Prosecutors said victims would see pop-up windows, often with logos of known companies, claiming that malware had been detected. They were directed to call a phone number for “technical support.”

Once hooked, victims allegedly paid several hundred or several thousand dollars to the fraudsters. They sometimes accessed the computers but only to run anti-virus tools that were freely available.

Prosecutors said more than 7,500 people in the US and Canada were defrauded out of over $10 million (£8.3m) from 2015 to 2018. Ponmaran directed co-conspirators to wire some fraud proceeds to accounts in India.

Christopher Black, a lawyer for Ponmaran, declined to comment.

Ponmaran, also known as Victor James, was charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, each carrying a maximum 20-year prison term.

A co-defendant, Romana Leyva of Las Vegas, was sentenced in January to serve 8-1/3 years in prison and pay $7.4m (£6.15m) in forfeiture and restitution after pleading guilty.

Another co-defendant, Ariful Haque of Queens, New York, also pleaded guilty. He was sentenced in May to serve one year and one day in prison and pay $510,000 (£423,945).

The US district judge, Paul Crotty in Manhattan, imposed both sentences, and is overseeing Ponmaran’s case.