A 21-year-old Indian student pursuing higher education in the United States was arrested by local police in North Carolina for his alleged involvement in fraudulent activities.
Kishan Kumar Singh, an Indian national, was arrested by the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office (GCSO) in North Carolina after he allegedly tried to dupe a 78-year-old woman of her money by impersonating as a federal agent.
The scam
The incident came to light when the elderly woman from the Stokesdale area began receiving threatening phone calls from unidentified individuals. They introduced themselves as federal agents and deputies. They misled the woman into believing that her bank accounts were compromised.
“Sheriff Danny H Rogers reports that deputies arrested 21-year-old Kishan Kumar Singh, an international student from India, after he tried to scam a 78-year-old woman by pretending to be law enforcement,” the sheriff’s office said in an official statement.
“The victim was told her bank accounts were compromised and was pressured into withdrawing a large amount of money for ‘safekeeping. Deputies arrested Singh when he showed up to collect the package as a ‘federal agent.’ He’s now in the Guilford County Detention Center under a $1 million bond, facing felony charges including Attempted Obtaining Property by False Pretenses and Exploitation of an Elder Adult,” the statement added.
The scamsters falsely told the elderly woman on the phone that her name was linked to criminal activity elsewhere in the country and that her bank accounts had been compromised, the authorities said.
Then the victim was coerced into withdrawing a large sum of money for so-called “safekeeping.”
The police arrested Kishan Kumar Singh when he arrived at the woman’s residence to collect the money under the guise of being a federal agent.
Singh is currently lodged at the Guilford County Detention Center on a $1 million bond and faces multiple felony charges, including “Attempted Obtaining Property by False Pretenses” and “Exploitation of an Elder Adult”.
According to the authorities, Singh had been living in the United States since 2024 on a student visa. He was residing near Cincinnati, Ohio.