A 28-year-old Indian man in Australia on student visa, working as an Uber driver, has been arrested and jailed for a calculated fraud in which he impersonated a law firm and created an entity out of thin air to convince a prospective homebuyer to transfer money to him.
The Sydney Morning Herald reported the person’s name as Pardeep who has been jailed for a maximum of two years for dishonestly obtaining property by deception and dealing with proceeds of crime. Out of the $200,000 that he swindled, only $900 was recovered. Pardeep bought gold with the rest of the money. The court was told that the Indian man was in Australia on a student visa as he came here to study Information Technology.
Pardeep got to know about this man in October 2024 who sought the service of a Sydney real estate law firm for buying a property. Pardeep registered a domain name almost identical to the law firm and sent the victim a fraudulent email from an address that closely resembles the actual law firm’s email address. As Pardeep’s communication with his victim continued, Pardeep registered a company, similar to the law firm’s name, created a business bank account and listed himself as the director.
Within a month, Pardeep requested a payment of $209,000 relating to the house purchase, including stamp duty fees. The victim transferred this amount across two payments that totalled $209,874.The victim realized he had been scammed after he spoke with the actual lawyer. After the fraud was reported, police traced it to Pardeep but he denied any wrongdoing and said he was the owner of a transport company. But he could not show any customer.
He was also captured in the surveillance footage of the shop from where he bought gold with the money. Pardeep’s lawyer told the court he was acting under the direction of another man but the prosecutors informed the court that they found no involvement of any other person. The judge sentenced Pardeep to two years’ jail with a non-parole period of 14 months and said he knew exactly what he was doing. Upon his release, he would most likely be deported from Australia where he was living with his partner.
