A Texas man was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his role in a financial scam of an 86-year-old Scott County woman. On August 20, Hanif Shaikh, 69, of Richmond, Texas, was convicted of fraud and two counts of theft.
On Friday, Sept 27, Judge Jason Mount imposed a total sentence of 12 years, all of which is to be served in prison. In addition to the prison sentence, Shaikh was ordered to pay restitution to the victim.
The scam, which occurred in the summer of 2022, involved tricking the victim into believing that her social security number had been illegally compromised and used to obtain money in an illegal narcotics transaction.
The scammers got her to believe that she was working with the federal government to secure her life savings until they could provide her with a new social security number.
The Scottsburg Police Department was notified by a local shipping store about a package they believed to be suspicious. Upon gaining access to the package, a large amount of cash was found. As the investigation began, it took local law enforcement multiple attempts to convince the victim that she was being scammed and not actually working with the federal government, according to Scott County Prosecutor Chris Owens.
By the time the police department was involved, the victim had already sent money on two prior occasions as part of the scam.
Steve Herald of the Scottsburg Police Department was able to work with the victim and set up another transaction in which the scammer believed he would be picking up more money from the victim. When the scammer arrived to pick up the money, his car was stopped by police and Shaikh was arrested.
After Shaikh’s arrest, the prosecutor’s office and law enforcement analyzed his phone and discovered that he had been involved in scamming people out of money in several other places throughout the United States. That information was provided to other law enforcement agencies with jurisdiction in those areas.
“I want to praise the work of Steve Herald and the Scottsburg Police Department for their investigation,” said Owens. “I also want to commend the work of deputy prosecuting attorney, Bradley Hall, who spent countless hours going through phone records to discover the evidence that was needed to get this result and for his work presenting this matter in the courtroom.”
“Scams like these happen all across the country many times each day. It is rare that cases like this get solved and scammers get held accountable for their criminal behavior.” he said
The Prosecutor’s Office advises all residents to be alert to potential scams. If you get any unsolicited correspondence asking for a financial transaction, alert local law enforcement before going through with the transaction. Unfortunately, in the digital world in which we live, bad people are out there trying to gain from the hard work of others, said Owens