For Pravin Mainali, a 20 year old Nepalese national in Sydney, his involvement in a credit card scam has proven to be a costly affair – he will have to serve an eighteen month sentence, upon completion of which, he is most likely to be deported back to Nepal. His pursuit for an IT degree in Australia has been cut short.
A court has sentenced 20 year old Pravin Mainali to seve a maximum eighteen month sentence. He was arrested by NSW Police for his alleged involvement in a credit card scam in March, 2020.
The police alleged Mainali had scammed AUD 18,500 from four victims via stealing their credit card information. Their cards were charged 21 times to steal the amount.
He is reported to have worked with a contact in India. According to media reports, ‘the con was being operated from a call-centre in India, and they would target people living in retirement homes’.
According to the same report, “the call center would call the victims telling them their credit cards had been ‘fraudulently accessed’, and that they were sending assistance”.
Mainali would then visit the victims and steal personal details and credit card information from them. He was arrested on 3rd March from Burwood area, and pleaded guilty to the charges laid against him at Burwood Local Court on March 5.
According to one of the vicitms, an 86 year old elderly living in a retirment home in Castle Hill, Mainali convinced him to share his Mastercard details with him. The elderly realised AUD 4,000 had been missing from his account a few days later. He reported the matter to the police, and an investigation led them to Mainali which subsequently exposed the international fraud syndicate.
