Javed Ashiq did not make the phone calls, according to federal prosecutors. They say the 52-year-old, who lives in Decatur, Georgia, was the courier who collected an elderly victim’s gold bars and cash and handed them to the people running the scam. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia announced on October 7, 2026 that a federal judge sentenced him to 168 months, which is 14 years, and ordered him to pay $886,799.84 in restitution.

Affiliate links — we may earn a commission.

What the courier did

The release says the scheme ran from July to August 2024. Co-conspirators, whom the release does not name, told the victim that their identity had been stolen and used for fraud. They posed as agents of the Federal Trade Commission and persuaded the victim to buy cryptocurrency and gold “to protect their assets.” Ashiq’s job was the handoff. He picked up the gold bars and cash and took them to the co-conspirators, leaving the victim, in the release’s words, “empty handed.”

Ashiq pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy. U.S. District Judge Dudley H. Bowen gave him 168 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. He will be processed for deportation after he serves his sentence. The release describes him as a Pakistani man living in Decatur. It gives no figure for how much the victim lost beyond the restitution order.

The question for families is how a stranger who claims to be a federal agent finds an older person to call in the first place, and what the person on the other end of the line should do. The release does not say how the callers found this victim. The FTC’s reports on similar cases show how they usually begin.

In the FTC’s reports of business and government impostor scams with losses of $10,000 or more, a phone call was the first contact in 41 percent of cases, and less personal data on broker lists can mean fewer scam calls, texts and emails; Incogni sends removal requests to those brokers for you and keeps re-sending them.

U.S. Attorney Margaret “Meg” Heap said the case “highlights the ruthless tactics scammers use to exploit senior citizens.” Matthew Ploskunak, supervisory senior resident agent in the FBI’s Augusta office, said “defrauding an elderly victim of their life savings through deception and impersonation is reprehensible.” The FBI, the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office and the Sandy Springs Police Department investigated, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelsey L. Scanlon prosecuted.

The script the FTC sees

The FTC’s August 2025 Data Spotlight on older adults describes three false alarms that open these scams: someone is using the person’s accounts, the person’s identity is tied to a crime, or the computer has a security problem. The identity-tied-to-a-crime version, often claimed by a fake government official, is the one in this case. From there the caller says the only way out of the crisis is to follow instructions, keeps the victim on the phone to block outside advice, and demands the money be moved.

The numbers are large. Reports from people 60 and older about business or government impostor scams with losses of $10,000 or more rose from 1,790 in 2020 to 8,269 in 2024, more than quadruple. Among those 2024 reports, 33 percent involved cryptocurrency, mostly Bitcoin ATMs, 20 percent a bank transfer and 16 percent cash. Gold was in about 5 percent of reports, but about 21 percent of reports with losses over $100,000. The FTC says scammers have victims hand cash or gold to couriers, which is the role Ashiq played.

What an FTC agent will never do

The FTC’s advice on government impersonators says the real FTC will never contact someone and ask for money or information like a Social Security, bank account or credit card number. It says the agency will not tell a person to withdraw cash or buy gold and hand it to someone. Government agencies, the page adds, do not demand wire transfers, gift cards, cryptocurrency or payment apps.

Caller ID does not help, because it can be faked. The FTC’s guidance is to hang up and call the agency back at a number the person already knows is correct. The Data Spotlight puts it more bluntly: “Never transfer or send money to anyone, no matter who they say they are.”

If a caller says they are a federal agent

Hang up first. Then tell someone, a family member, a bank teller, a neighbor, since these scripts depend on keeping the target isolated. If anything was handed over or sent, report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, which the FTC runs for impostor scams, and tell the bank right away if money moved by transfer. A person who gave out a Social Security number or account details can find recovery steps at IdentityTheft.gov, according to the FTC.

The FBI takes tips about cases like this at tips.fbi.gov. Gather what exists: the phone numbers that called, the dates, the names the callers gave, and receipts for any gold, cryptocurrency or gift cards bought.

For a family member who gets a suspicious message, the FTC’s rules are simple: do not click links in unexpected messages, do not press numbers on a robocall, and do not trust caller ID. Each of those takes a few seconds, and each cuts off the scammer’s next step.

A fake FTC call starts with a name and a number

The scammers in this case knew enough to say a particular person’s identity had been stolen, and they knew where to send a courier. The FTC found a phone call was the first contact in 41 percent of the large-loss reports from people 60 and older. Incogni asks data brokers and people-search sites to remove personal information, sends the removal requests on a customer’s behalf and keeps re-sending them. Less personal data on broker lists can mean fewer scam calls, texts and emails.

Have Incogni send the data broker removal requests for you →

This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.