Kishor Bogati convicted for scamming elderly woman out of thousands of dollars

An international student has been convicted after scamming an elderly woman out of thousands of dollars, a court has heard.

Kishor Bogati, 23, pleaded guilty in the Gosford Local Court to dealing with property in the proceeds of crime.

An international student has been convicted after scamming an elderly woman out of thousands of dollars, a court has heard.

Nepalese student, Kishor Bogati, 23, pleaded guilty in the Gosford Local Court to dealing with property that was the proceeds of crime.

Bogati’s victim, a 77-year-old woman, was subjected to a remote access phishing scam.

Police facts state the victim had been requested to download a remote access program onto her computer.

Once downloaded, funds were transferred to a number of offending accounts. According to court documents, on 19 April last year, the victim received an email from someone she believed to be ‘Paypal’.

Kishor Bogati, 23, pleaded guilty in the Gosford Local Court to dealing with property in the proceeds of crime.

She phoned ‘Paypal’ using the phone number provided in the email, and the ‘Paypal’ security agent asked the victim to download an application onto her computer so they could fix an issue with her ‘Paypal’ application.

A screen pop-up appeared where the ‘Paypal’ agent asked the victim to enter her payee information and to complete a form.

Kishor Bogati, 23, pleaded guilty in the Gosford Local Court to dealing with property in the proceeds of crime for his role in an online scam. FILE PICTURE

The ‘Paypal’ agent then took control of the victim’s application, transferring money into multiple bank accounts throughout 19 and 20 April 2024, without the victim’s consent.

Realising she had been the target of a scam, she contacted her son to assist her in reporting the matter to the police and her banking institution.

Investigations revealed that a total of 44 transactions made from the victim’s bank account, into five separate offending bank accounts, were identified as fraudulent.

To date, the victim has suffered a total financial loss of $39,799.

Investigators have conducted inquiries into the accounts identified as being used by the offenders and the identity of the offenders involved.

Two other co-accused have been charged in relation to the offending.

The total funds transferred fraudulently from the victim’s account to the accused’s account is $9,924.

Kishor Bogati, 23, pleaded guilty in the Gosford Local Court to dealing with property in the proceeds of crime.

Bogati told police a male acquaintance asked him to open the bank account and told him that once the money had been credited into his account, he was to transfer it into other accounts, the details of which he had been provided.

Bogati advised he did not know the people he was transferring to or why, but he did not question it.

Magistrate Kirralee Perry said the victim was clearly vulnerable in the community but accepted Bogati may not have known the victim was 77.

The court also heard that Bogati had been communicating with the organiser of the scam since December 2023.

“There is discussion in those messages about you participating in this scam…you were aware what you were doing was risky,” Ms Perry said.

“I do not accept you were an innocent party in this scam, I do not accept you have no knowledge of this scam,” Ms Perry said.

Bogati was convicted and placed on a community corrections order for 12 months.

Originally published as Kishor Bogati convicted for scamming elderly woman out of thousands of dollars