Woman tricked out of $1 million in Amazon scam helps set up ‘ruse,’ feds say

A 29-year-old man was arrested in connection with a scam that cost a Montana woman nearly $1 million, federal prosecutors said.

Zabi Ullah Mohammed, who lives in New Jersey, made an initial court appearance on charges of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and impersonating a federal agent, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Montana said in a May 15 news release.

McClatchy News reached out to his attorney May 16 and was awaiting a response.

A Missoula woman contacted sheriff’s deputies in April to report possible fraud, an FBI special agent wrote in an affidavit.

The woman said a person claiming to be from Amazon called and asked if she’d bought computer equipment, the affidavit said.

When she said no, the person advised she was likely an identity theft victim and transferred her to the “Social Security Department,” according to the affidavit.

She then was told that “her identity had been used in potential money laundering” and was connected to a purported U.S. Marshal named Carlos Silva, the affidavit said.

Silva told her “that to keep her funds safe, she needed to take all of her money out of her bank accounts so that it could be ‘legalized,’” according to the affidavit, which said the woman “was assured the money would be returned to her.”

Between April 2 and April 18, “agents” picked up more than $900,000 in cash and gold from the woman at her home, the affidavit said.

The woman then contacted deputies, and she agreed to take part “in a ruse attempt to get an ‘agent’ to pick up another package from her home,” according to the affidavit.

As part of the ruse, the woman told Silva she had $57,000 for him, and on May 12, Silva called and said a driver was outside, the affidavit said.

The woman handed over a box that was supposed to have cash but actually held a tracking device, the affidavit said.

The driver, later identified as Mohammed, took the box, went to a nearby restaurant and left it in the parking lot, the affidavit said.

Officials believe he found the tracker, according to the affidavit.

Deputies pulled him over, and later in an interview he said he was an Uber driver and that “he was in Montana for work and that he picked things up for people,” the affidavit said.

After Mohammed was arrested, Silva called the woman and asked “why she did this” and told her “she would not be receiving her money back,” the affidavit said.

In a statement, an Amazon spokesperson said, “Scammers that attempt to impersonate Amazon put consumers at risk. We will continue to invest in protecting consumers and educating the public on scam avoidance.”

The spokesperson added that, “We encourage consumers to report suspected scams to us so that we can protect their accounts and refer bad actors to law enforcement to help keep consumers safe. Please visit our help pages to find additional information on how to identify scams and report them at amazon.com/ReportAScam.”

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