Three men have been handed prison sentences for their roles in carrying out an elaborate tech support fraud that bilked millions of dollars from victims across the United States. Nachiket Banwari of Charlotte will serve 30 months, Hunter G. Mello of Massachusetts got a 40-month sentence, and Richard Paul Nolan of Colorado Springs was sentenced to 24 months, as reported by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of North Carolina. Each of them is also required to endure three years of supervised release post-incarceration, and they must collectively forfeit over $3.7 million in ill-gotten gains.
According to court documents, the conspiracy involved misleading pop-up ads that frightened victims – many of whom were elderly – into thinking their computers were corrupted by a virus. The victims were directed to call a number that connected them to Indian call centers, where operators pretended to be from Microsoft. These call center agents would then further deceive victims into paying for unnecessary technical support for their non-compromised computers. The scheme managed to conned millions of people in the United States into making the call to these centers.
Nachiket Banwari was employed by Capstone Technologies, a Charlotte-based firm, and played a part in leveraging these deceptive pop-ups and an India-based call center to commit the fraud. For his contribution to the ploy that defrauded victims out of more than $7 million, Banwari pocketed three percent of Capstone's revenue, totaling $222,334. Hunter Mello was deeply involved a the broker, selling pop-up call leads to Indian call centers, generating over $20 million in sales and amassing up to $2 million for himself. Richard Nolan developed TrackDrive, a platform to route fraudulent calls to these call centers effectively, and made roughly $2 million from the operation, which contributed to a total loss of approximately $19 million linked to his scheme.
The investigation into Banwari was spearheaded by the FBI Charlotte Field Office, while the FBI Nashville Field Office – Knoxville Resident Agency took the lead on Mello and Nolan. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Warren, alongside Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Frick, handled the prosecution of the cases.
