Businessman arrested for massive fraud in Miami

Every day, criminals are more sophisticated and improve their strategies with new technologies, that is why it is very difficult to stop them.

They take advantage of technological advancements in their methods of manipulating their victims to perfect their scams more and more.

Such is the case of Shrey Goyal, a 35-year-old businessman living in Miami. He was accused of conspiring with Shaunik Raheja, 34, of Denver, to commit a million-dollar scam.

Goyal and Raheja allegedly own and operate short-term property rental businesses in 10 states of the country. The scheme involved them using vacation rentals and canceling customers’ reservations. They manipulated their victims by canceling their reservations or finding accommodation at the last minute.

The modus operandi of scams

The alleged scheme began in October 2017 with a false client list. They used Airbnb, Vrbo and other online vacation rental platforms to make fraudulent bookings.

They canceled reservations at the last minute of people who didn’t pay the highest price per room and especially if they were black. They did not give him his money back.

Suspects seized millions of dollars worth of goods. Thousands of passengers were affected due to this theft.

The defendants currently face 13 federal charges. These include double booking scams, deceptive business practices, wire fraud conspiracy and identity theft. Each faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.

The United States Attorney, Martin Estrada, revealed that those involved had made more than 10,000 reservations at about 100 properties in 10 states. They hurt thousands of people and took $8.5,000,000 USD. He also added that the perpetrators allegedly discriminated against the victims on racial grounds.

This fact shows the need to protect oneself on the Internet, using safe sites, to avoid possible fraud.