Posing as federal agents: $2.1 million from people told they were under investigation
In May 2025 the US Attorney's Office for the District of Delaware announced that Rakeshkumar Patel, an Indian national, had pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud conspiracy over an elder fraud scheme targeting Americans. Victims were called by fraudsters posing as federal agents who convinced them their identities had been stolen and that they were themselves under federal investigation. The scheme involved at least .1 million in losses.
- Year
- 2025
- Where
- United States, India
- Outcome
- Convicted
- Reported loss
- $2.1 million
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- Government impersonation, Fake tech support, Digital arrest
- Last reviewed
- 2026-09-06
The facts, as recorded
- Guilty plea announced 21 May 2025 by the US Attorney's Office for the District of Delaware.
- Rakeshkumar Patel, an Indian national, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud conspiracy.
- Fraudsters contacted victims by phone posing as federal agents.
- Victims were told their identities had been stolen and that they were under federal investigation.
- The scheme involved at least $2.1 million in losses from victims.
- The case was brought as part of the Justice Department's work on transnational elder fraud.
Why this case matters
The pretext here is worth reading twice, because it is a small piece of engineering.
The victim is not accused of a crime, exactly. They are told their identity has been stolen — which casts the caller as helping — and then told that as a result they are under federal investigation, which supplies the fear. The victim ends up in a position where cooperating with the caller is both the helpful thing and the safe thing.
That combination is what distinguishes this from a straightforward threat. Pure intimidation makes people call someone. Being helped out of a situation you did not cause makes people cooperate quietly, which is exactly what the scheme needs.
The rules this produces
Two, and both are absolute in every country this site covers.
No law-enforcement agency will call to tell you that you are under investigation and then ask for money or cooperation over the phone. Investigations do not work that way anywhere.
No agency asks you to move, withdraw, or convert your money to keep it safe. Not into gold, not into cryptocurrency, not into a “secure federal account”. There is no such account.
Because caller ID is trivially spoofed, the number on the screen is not evidence of anything. If a call like this arrives, hang up and dial the agency on a number you found yourself.
What it tells you about the scheme
Government impersonation is the fastest-growing large category in US reporting: IC3 recorded 32,424 complaints and million in losses in 2025, against .6 million the year before — losses nearly doubling in twelve months. Cases like this one are the visible enforcement edge of a very large volume of calls.
Sources
- Justice Department Highlights Enforcement Efforts Protecting Older Americans from Transnational Fraud Schemes in Recognition of 2025 World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. US Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs. Accessed 2026-09-06. Supports: The guilty plea, charge, district, date, the federal-agent pretext and the $2.1 million figure.