A man convicted of scamming an elderly Sandy Springs victim out of around $500,000 has been sentenced to 14 years in federal prison, according to the Sandy Springs Police Department. Javed Ashiq posed as a representative of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and convinced the victim that his life savings were in danger and needed protection, police say, before collecting large sums of cash across nearly a dozen in-person meetings.
The sentencing was announced by the Sandy Springs Police Department, as Atlanta News First first reported. Investigators say the scheme began after the elderly victim received a fraudulent Microsoft pop-up warning in July 2024 claiming his identity and financial accounts were at risk. Separately, a Georgia-based account of the case reported that the Sandy Springs victim ultimately lost his entire life savings, after scammers allegedly posed as Bank of America representatives and met with him 10 times to collect cash — a detail that differs from the Sandy Springs police account of nearly a dozen meetings, according to WFXG.
Police Say Ashiq Rotated Vehicles to Dodge Detection
During the meetings with the Sandy Springs victim, Ashiq used multiple vehicles, apparently to avoid detection, police say. Sandy Springs investigators eventually used automated license plate readers to identify vehicles associated with him, which helped tie him to the case.
That surveillance work led to his arrest in Columbia County while he was traveling to meet another victim, according to police. The case there involved a separate, elderly woman and a scheme built around gold rather than cash.
A Second Scheme Targeted a Columbia County Woman Over Gold
According to WJBF, Ashiq was arrested in 2024 after investigators with the Columbia County Sheriff's Office say he arrived at the woman's home to collect a package he believed contained about $241,000 worth of gold bullion. Reports differ on the victim's age — WJBF's regional partner WSPA reported she was 90, while WFXG reported she was 93.
The outlet reports she had been told she needed to move money from a Wells Fargo account into gold to protect it, a detail noted in reporting from WSPA, which is cited only here to avoid repeating the same outlet in back-to-back paragraphs. Investigators ultimately connected Ashiq to four pickups involving the Columbia County victim. Ahead of one planned exchange, deputies swapped three one-kilogram gold bars for rocks and dirt before the handoff, according to the same report.
Ashiq initially denied knowing what was inside the boxes he collected, but later admitted during the federal investigation that he opened the packages, knew what they contained, and communicated that information to contacts, the outlet reported.
Sentencing Includes Restitution, Supervised Release and Removal
Ashiq pleaded guilty in federal court before his sentencing, and the judge ultimately handed down 168 months — 14 years — in federal prison, per the same WJBF report. The sentence will be followed by three years of federal supervision and includes an order to pay restitution to victims in both Columbia County and Sandy Springs.
The exact restitution figure is reported inconsistently: WFXG reported the judge ordered Ashiq to pay a total of $886,799, while a Justice Department search-result snippet put the figure at $886,799.84 following a guilty plea to wire fraud conspiracy, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The Sandy Springs Police Department did not specify the charges in the federal case. WJBF also reported that Ashiq is expected to face removal from the United States after completing his sentence and will not be permitted to return.
A Pattern Fits a Nationwide Surge in Elder Fraud
Sandy Springs police said the case illustrates the financial and emotional harm scams can cause vulnerable people, and urged residents to stay vigilant against similar schemes. The department advised anyone who receives a suspicious cash request to contact their financial institution directly and report the incident to law enforcement, stressing that legitimate financial institutions and government agencies will not ask individuals to withdraw large sums of cash or arrange in-person cash pickups to protect their money.
The warning lines up with a broader trend tracked by federal regulators. The Federal Trade Commission has reported a more than four-fold increase since 2020 in reports from older adults who say they lost $10,000 or more — sometimes their entire life savings — to scammers impersonating trusted institutions, and total fraud losses reported by adults 60 and older climbed from about $600 million in 2020 to $2.4 billion in 2024. The FBI has separately warned about scams that direct older victims to send cash through wire transfers, mail or couriers, as well as tech-support scams that push seniors toward shipping companies to move money.
