A federal judge in Wisconsin sentenced Ankurkumar Patel, 44, of Brookfield to 84 months in prison on October 6 for working as a courier in a “Phantom Hacker” scam aimed at older Americans. Prosecutors say Patel retrieved and laundered more than $1 million from elderly victims who had been told their accounts were under attack and their savings had to move to a “safe” place. He was also ordered to pay more than $1.3 million in restitution. The sentence puts a number on the part of the scam that happens in person, after the phone calls end.
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A courier’s 84-month sentence
Patel pleaded guilty on June 15 to one count of money laundering conspiracy, and U.S. District Judge Brett H. Ludwig imposed the sentence on October 6. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Wisconsin says the victims were elderly people in several states, including Wisconsin. In some cases Patel collected the cash and gold himself, and in others he used couriers of his own. The office names no co-defendant and refers only to co-conspirators, some of them overseas, who received the proceeds through anonymous transactions.
First Assistant U.S. Attorney Brad D. Schimel announced the sentence and said the office will “aggressively pursue those who steal from senior citizens”. The judge noted that the victims lost their life savings, according to the office. Alan Karr, the FBI Milwaukee special agent in charge, said the bureau “is committed to investigating those who exploit vulnerable individuals for their own personal gain.” Assistant U.S. Attorney Peter J. Smyczek prosecuted the case, which FBI Milwaukee investigated with Homeland Security Investigations in St. Louis.
How a Phantom Hacker call becomes a pickup
The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, known as IC3, described the pattern in a September 2023 alert. A fake tech-support agent gets remote access to a computer and finds the most valuable account. A fake bank or brokerage representative then says a foreign hacker is inside and tells the victim to move money to a “safe” account and tell no one. A fake Federal Reserve or government employee finishes the job by pushing the funds into a new “alias” account. The FBI says anyone who gets such a pop-up, text or email should ignore it, should not call the number it lists and should never let a stranger control a computer.
The sentencing release does not say how Patel’s victims were first reached, and the FBI describes the opening contact as a pop-up, text or email. A message of that kind has to reach someone, and data broker and people-search sites list phone numbers and home addresses. Incogni sends removal requests to those sites on a person’s behalf and keeps re-sending them, and less personal data on broker lists can mean fewer scam calls, texts and emails. It cannot end a call that has already started, and for that the FBI’s advice is to hang up and ignore the demands.
The pickup is covered in a January 2024 FBI alert. Victims were told to turn savings into cash, to buy gold, silver or other precious metals, or to wire money to a metals dealer that shipped the metal to their homes. Scammers then sent couriers to collect the cash or metals at homes or in public places. Some victims were given a passcode, such as the serial number of a dollar bill, to confirm the courier was legitimate. The FBI counted more than $55 million in losses from this activity between May and December 2023.
That alert’s advice is specific to the courier step. The FBI says never to buy gold or other precious metals at the request of the U.S. government or a legitimate business, and never to share a home address or meet unknown people to hand over cash or metals. Victims are told their assets will sit in a protected account, and the FBI says they then never hear from the scammers again. Patel’s case shows who was on the receiving end of that arrangement and how the money moved on to others.
What the FBI’s 2025 numbers show for older victims
The FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report counts 201,266 complaints from people 60 and older, up 37% from 2024, with $7.748 billion in reported losses, up 59%. The average loss in that group was $38,500, and 12,444 of those complainants lost more than $100,000. Tech and customer support scams, the first move in the Phantom Hacker script, accounted for 21,333 complaints and about $1.04 billion in losses for people 60 and older. Government impersonation, the last move, accounted for 8,628 complaints and $413 million.
The report does not break out Phantom Hacker cases as a category, so those figures cover the whole families of scams that the script borrows from. They also count what victims reported, not what was recovered. A restitution order such as Patel’s is likewise a figure the court set, and the Justice Department release does not say how much has been or can be collected. The IC3 report separately lists 642 recovery incidents for victims 60 and older in which $32.9 million of $65.4 million in reported losses was frozen.
Reporting a Phantom Hacker contact to the FBI
FBI Milwaukee asks anyone who may have been targeted by a similar scam to call 414-276-4684 or report online at IC3.gov. The 2023 alert asks reports to include the name of the person or company that made contact, the methods used, such as websites, emails and phone numbers, and the account numbers and recipient names for any transfers. Victims 60 or older who need help filing can call the Justice Department’s Elder Justice Hotline at 1-833-FRAUD-11, or 833-372-8311.
The 2023 alert says the U.S. government will never ask for wire transfers to foreign accounts, cryptocurrency, or gift or prepaid cards. That makes the script’s own demands the clearest warning: a request to move savings to a safe account, to hand cash to a courier or to turn money into gold does not come from a bank, a brokerage or a federal agency. Each of the three fake voices in the alert asks for one of those things.
Patel’s 84 months is the penalty for one courier in a scheme the Eastern District of Wisconsin says reached victims in several states and sent proceeds to co-conspirators overseas. The office has named no one else, and it has not said how much of the $1.3 million in restitution can be collected. The FBI’s reporting line and IC3 are the only routes the release points to for victims.
Phantom Hacker scams begin with an unsolicited contact
The FBI’s alert on the scheme starts with a stranger posing as tech support, and Patel’s share of it ended with more than $1 million in laundered savings. Incogni sends removal requests to data brokers and people-search sites on a person’s behalf and keeps re-sending them when listings reappear. Less personal data on broker lists can mean fewer scam calls, texts and emails, and the status of each request shows in the account.
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This article was researched and drafted with the assistance of AI and reviewed by The Money Overview editorial team.
