Vinoth Ponmaran, 36, has been sentenced to seven years in prison for masterminding a large-scale tech support fraud scheme that deceived over 6,500 victims, primarily targeting elderly individuals in the UK and Canada. The scam, which ran from March 2015 to July 2018, yielded more than $6 million in illicit profits.

Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced the sentence, highlighting that Ponmaran, an Indian citizen, was convicted of leading an elaborate fraud ring. Ponmaran has also been ordered to forfeit $6,110,884.51 and will be subject to three years of supervised release following his prison term.

Ponmaran operated an India-based call centre that was central to the scheme. The fraud ring misled victims by causing false pop-up windows to appear on their computers, erroneously claiming that their systems were infected with malware. These pop-ups, which often featured the logos of well-known tech companies, directed victims to call a number for technical support.

The scammers persuaded victims to pay hundreds or thousands of pounds for non-existent computer repairs. The pop-ups sometimes threatened severe data loss if the victims restarted their computers, creating a sense of urgency that led many to contact the fraudulent support line. Once victims paid, the scammers used remote access tools to run a free anti-virus scan on their computers, making the scam seem legitimate.

Ponmaran’s role involved overseeing the call centre operations in India, recruiting co-conspirators in the US to open fraudulent bank accounts, and laundering the stolen funds. His co-defendants, Romana Leyva and Ariful Haque, were sentenced in 2022. Leyva received 100 months in prison and was ordered to forfeit $4.7 million, while Haque was sentenced to 12 months and one day in prison with forfeiture of $38,800.

Damian Williams remarked,

“Ponmaran led a sophisticated scheme that exploited thousands of victims, including some of the most vulnerable. This sentence underscores our commitment to holding accountable those who prey on the elderly and others for financial gain.”

The case was prosecuted by the Office’s Complex Frauds and Cybercrime Unit, with significant assistance from the New York Office of the Homeland Security Investigations’s El Dorado Task Force and the New York City Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael D. Neff led the prosecution.