04/08/2026
Never thought I'd hear of these money mules being so close to home. These types of scams happen everyday, unfortunately. I deal with 10 to 20 people a week from the area that this happens to 😩😩
**** NEWS RELEASE/FRAUD INVESTIGATION ****
Authority: Detective Captain David Clark
On Wednesday, April 1, 2026, a family member of a resident of the Town of Columbus contacted the Columbia County Sheriff's Office to report that their parent had been the victim of a fraud and was out a substantial amount of money. It was also reported that the suspect was actively trying to defraud the victim of more money.
A Columbia County Sheriff's Office Detective immediately responded to investigate. The detective learned that the victim may have inadvertently accessed malware on their cell phone. This led to a sophisticated scam in which the victim was led to believe there were fraudulent charges on an account. The victim was directed to call their bank, at the legitimate number, but the scammer directed the victim to enter a specific series of numbers that then somehow routed the victim to another scammer, not an employee with their bank. The victim was then further led to believe they had accessed child po*******hy. The victim was told how to make everything right by paying money which resulted in the victim delivering a large quantity of cash to a courier.
As the scammers continued to try to get money from the victim, she went to her bank, where alert bank staff identified that a scam was occurring.
As the scammers were still trying to receive more money from the victim via a courier drop off, the Columbia County Sheriff's Office conducted an operation to deliver what the courier would believe to be more US Currency in the City of Columbus.
On Thursday, April 2nd, at approximately 6:00PM, the package was delivered to the couriers under surveillance of investigators. After the courier's took custody of the package, a felony stop was conducted on their vehicle in the City of Columbus. This felony stop involved a large law enforcement presence and was conducted at the intersection of Dix Street and West James Street in Columbus. Both suspects were taken into custody without incident.
As the investigation continued, a search warrant was conducted at a hotel room in the City of Columbus associated with the suspects. It was evident by evidence located during the investigation that multiple other victims exist in several states related to this fraud group.
The suspect couriers are identified as Simranjeet Singh, age 22, and Vaibhav Sharma, age 23, both of Bakersfield California. The Columbia County Sheriff's Office received information that both subjects are in the United States illegally from India.
Both suspects were lodged at the Columbia County Jail and have been charged by the Columbia County District Attorney's Office with:
- Attempted Theft by False Representation ($10,000-$100,000) as party to a crime, with an elder person as victim
Both appeared in Columbia County Circuit Court on April 7th and are currently being held on $12,500 cash bond.
Due to their immigration status, the Department of Homeland Security, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement placed a detainer on both subjects.
It is important to know that scammers are frequently targeting our residents. These people are very savvy talkers and can throw a lot of information at a victim, convincing them they have done something wrong and need to provide money to fix the situation. Be skeptical of unsolicited phone calls, text messages, emails and other communications. When in doubt, contact the supposed sender directly to confirm the legitimacy of the information. Good people are losing substantial quantities of money to these scams. The money moves fast, and if law enforcement isn't involved immediately, it's very difficult to get the money back.
If you're the victim of a suspected scam, don't delete any of the communications and contact law enforcement immediately. This is the best opportunity for the movement of money to be stopped and recovery to be made for the victim.
We are very appreciative of the assistance from the Columbus Police Department in this investigation.
This investigation is on-going and additional charges are possible.
Sheriff Roger L. Brandner
