Fraud Red Flag: Fake Email Addresses – Fraud Friday

July 5, 2024

Delaney Sexton
Contributing Editor

Fraud Red Flag: Fake Email Addresses – Fraud Friday

“Robert Engelmeyer” was a fictitious individual created to aid Nik and Trisha Patel’s loan fraud scheme. He was the identity that was the signer on the loan documentation for the business Precision Powered Products, Inc. (PPP). The email address attributed to Engelmeyer was Robertengelmeyer@yahoo.com. That email address was registered in February 2021 on the exact same date that a fake phone number for Robert was created.

Similar to “Maya Greer”, the fictitious Senior Vice President at Community 1^st, Trisha Patel created a fake email address to communicate as Robert. Under Nik’s guidance, Trisha would send emails that he dictated using Maya’s email address so it appeared like she was an actual loan officer. In the case of Robert Engelmeyer, Trisha used his email address to send wires and help with the fraud scheme.

To sell the idea of Maya Greer and the fake lender, the Patels created a domain under Go Daddy.com, LLC. The Community 1^st (community1stmortgagetrust.com) domain was created at the start of 2021, and Maya Greer’s email (maya@community1stmortgagetrust.com) was obtained from that same account. They did not go this far to make Robert Engelmeyer appear credible.

Robert Engelmeyer using a yahoo email address alone does not suggest fraud, but it is a red flag that should catch your attention. If it was a smaller loan for a smaller business, the yahoo email address would not stick out as much, but in this case, PPP is applying for a multi-million dollar loan. If the business was at a size where an $8.5 million dollar loan was reasonable, it would be expected that the business has a domain that supplies business emails to all its employees.

Source:
Trisha Patel Plea Deal