Fugitive from Des Plaines posed as federal agent to scam people, authorities say

A Des Plaines man wanted by the FBI helped scam people out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, authorities announced Monday.

Abdul Mohammed, 31, is charged in a federal indictment with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and two counts of wire fraud, according to a U.S. Department of Justice news release. If convicted, he faces up to 60 years in federal prison.

Mohammed, whose address wasn’t released by authorities, and his co-conspirators contacted people by phone, text and email and claimed to be government agents, authorities said in the release. They said the victims’ personal information had been compromised and that the victims needed to give federal agents cash or gold bars for safe keeping.

The scammers fraudulently told one victim he’d been implicated in a drug crime, too, according to the release.

The victims typically were older people, authorities said. Some lost their retirement savings. Some were scammed more than once by the same crew. One Indiana victim was taken for about $170,000, authorities said.

The case was brought to a grand jury in Indiana because at least one of crimes occurred in that state, a justice department spokeswoman said.

Mohammed was indicted in August. Zachary A. Myers, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, encouraged Mohammed to contact the FBI and arrange his safe surrender.

If you know where Mohammed is, you can contact the FBI at (317) 595-4000 or fbi.gov/tips.