Undercover Agent Poses as Elderly Woman to Arrest Indian Scam Courier in Michigan

Yug Chauhan was casually sipping on soda as an undercover agent went to meet him posing as an elderly woman in Michigan.

The video of a dramatic arrest of an Indian scammer by the Michigan Sheriff's Office has now been released. The case was interesting as the scammer was scammed by the cops and an alert store owner and foiled the attempt to defraud an elderly woman. A woman cop went to meet the courier, Yug B Chauhan, to hand over the box of gold coins, though inside the box, there were golden chocolate coins. The video revealed how the cop was speaking to someone else, probably the person who did the communication part of scamming the woman, to verify something -- and then, as she came out of the vehicle still pretending to be an old woman, she caught courier Chauhan by surprise. Chauhan, as seen in the video, was sipping on his soda, unwittingly and was shocked when he realized that those were cops. The courier had no idea that he got scammed and he was seeing here and there when the cop got down from the car with the box in her hand. She kept the box and her phone inside the car and caught Chauhan's hand from behind as another agent came in and pushed Chauhan inside the car.

The arrest took place in May after a 79-year-old Michigan widow was brainwashed for days that her Social Security funds were being misused for terror purposes and she had to buy gold coins of $700,000 and give them to the scammers who pretended to be government officials. The woman went to a shop to purchase gold but the alert storeowner realized that something was amiss as the woman was in a rush and had no interest in the gold that she was purchasing. The store owner informed the sheriff's office to be on the safe side. Cops visited the woman and then decided to go along with the plan of the scammers -- only instead of the elderly woman, undercover agents were sent to meet the courier.

After arrest, Yug said he never met the man who gave him instructions over the phone and he was just a courier. The sheriff’s office has issued a list of red flags that indicate something could be a scam:

Demands for immediate payment

Pressure to act immediately or keep a secret

Requests for payment through gift cards, cryptocurrency, wire transfers, prepaid debit cards or systems like Venmo, Zelle and Cash App

Caller claims to be law enforcement, your bank, Social Security, the Internal Revenue Service, Amazon, Microsoft or Apple

Threats of arrest, jail time, suspended accounts or utility shutoffs

Unexpected texts or emails with links

Requests for remote access to your phone or computer

“Too good to be true” prizes, jobs or offers

Requests for money from someone you met online

Spoofed phone numbers, odd wording or poor grammar

Refusing to let you hang up or verify information