KADER GAHMAAL BIWAKI EDMOND, Bank Fraud, Connecticut 2023

KADER GAHMAAL BIWAKI EDMOND, 24, a Miami, Florida resident, has admitted to being part of a Zelle scam that duped individuals out of over $250,000 in Connecticut and other locations across the United States.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut, Edmond, along with accomplices, targeted Zelle users with fake text messages appearing to be from their banks. The messages claimed that a suspicious transaction had occurred and asked the victim to confirm whether they authorized the transaction. When the victim denied the transaction, they were told a bank representative would contact them. However, this was just a ruse to get the victim to provide their phone number or email address linked to their Zelle account.

Once the scammer had access to the victim’s information, they would inform the victim that they needed to work together to reverse the fake transaction. The scammer would then instruct the victim to send a Zelle payment to what they believed was their own account, but was actually a bank account controlled by the scammer.

Edmond and his accomplices ran this scheme from February 2021 through August 2023, duping numerous victims, including those in Connecticut, out of over $250,000.

Edmond was arrested on August 31, 2023, and is currently out on a $100,000 bond pending sentencing. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.

Edmond is scheduled to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Michael P. Shea on August 14 in Hartford.

Victims of Zelle scams can report the incident to their bank or credit union, or to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), which is run by the FBI and serves as the country’s hub for reporting cybercrime. The IC3 can be reached at www.ic3.gov.

For more information on digital payment application schemes, visit the IC3 website at https://www.ic3.gov/Media/Y2022/PSA220414.

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