Hacker Admits To Stealing $150,000 From Montanan

A man pleaded guilty Oct. 17 to his role in stealing $150,000 by hacking into an elderly Montana woman’s computer, reported the Montana U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Sukhdev Vaid, 24, of India faces a maximum of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release after admitting to wire fraud.

Vaid accessed a 73-year-old woman’s account in February through a pop-up on the Kalispell woman’s computer screen saying her computer was “hacked” and telling her to call a number for customer support. The woman complied when fraudsters told her to take cash out from her bank accounts for safekeeping at the “Fed,” giving Vaid and another man $150,000 in cash.

In a ruse set up by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in March, the woman, who is identified only as Jane Doe, told the hackers she still had $50,000 in cash.

Law enforcement arrested Vaid and co-defendant Eddly Joseph of Gainesville, Fla., when they arrived in Montana to steal the money, according to the government in cour documents.

The investigation determined that the fraudsters remotely accessed Jane Doe’s computer using UltraViewer, which they installed on her computer.

Joseph pleaded guilty in August to wire fraud and is awaiting sentencing.