Niece sets up sting for man attempting to scam aunt; Carson City deputies book him for felony extortion 

A 61-year-old Carson City man was jailed June 25 after allegedly attempting to scam a woman for $9,200 by claiming to be an attorney and stating her cousin needed bail money. 

According to a Carson City Sheriff’s Office arrest report, Mohammad Rahman was arrested after deputies were dispatched to a North Carson Street pharmacy when a woman called to say she was meeting up with a scammer and asked for deputies to arrest the man. 

Deputies called the woman who said that a man was attempting to scam her aunt for $9,200. The scammer had called her aunt stating that he was an attorney and demanded her to pay him the cash for her cousin’s bail, and stated he was in the hospital and being taken into custody, the report states.

The man claimed her cousin had been involved in an accident with a six-and-a-half-month pregnant woman, and the money would be used as bail to get him into a first-time offender program, according to the report.

The woman told deputies she was playing along with the scammer, who said he had a courier available to meet her at the pharmacy to collect the money. She told deputies she was to meet a man named Mohammad driving a white Lexus and provide him the money. 

When deputies drove past the area, they saw the subject vehicle parked in the parking lot. The deputy pulled into a nearby parking lot, and the woman pulled in behind them. The report states the woman told deputies she was surprised the suspect’s car was actually there and deputies told her to stay where she was and that the deputy would make contact.

As soon as the deputy entered the parking lot, Rahman immediately attempted to pull out of the parking lot, according to the arrest report.

The deputy activated their overhead lights, and Rahman attempted to drive around them until they got out of the car and told Rahman to stop. 

The deputy told Rahman that he was being stopped because he was a suspect in a fraud and/or extortion case, and they needed his driver’s license. 

The report states Rahman was “hesitant” to provide his ID, and said he was a Lyft driver, and offered a laminated page from his glove box that read Lyft. 

The deputy told him that they still needed his ID, and he eventually provided it. While running Rahman over the radio, Rahman “got on the phone and started talking to someone,” according to the report. 

The aunt later arrived on scene, and told deputies she’d been called and told her son was in the hospital and had been in an accident and that he was being arrested due to a six-and-a-half-month pregnant woman being involved. She said she was told she needed to come up with $9,200 for a first-time offender program, the report states.

She said she did not have the money, and she called a family member asking for the money. At some point, the niece was called by another family member, who took over, stating it was a scam. The niece told her aunt she would play along.

After telling the scammer she had the money and would meet the courier, she called her cousin to confirm he was OK. She made contact with him and he told her that he was in the hospital, but it was for a blood pressure issue and he wasn’t in trouble. 

While speaking with deputies, Rahman first told one deputy that he was picking up a package and taking it to Sacramento.

However, he told the reporting deputy that he was meant to be meeting a passenger for Lyft, but they hadn’t shown up and so he was leaving. Deputies asked why Rahman had suddenly decided to leave when they pulled into the parking lot and he said he was leaving because his ride had not shown up.

Deputies asked if he was going to pick up money and he said no. He repeated he was just a Lyft driver several times.

Deputies asked if they could look at his phone, and he consented to having it downloaded, the report states.

He was taken into custody for conspiracy to commit extortion and booked without issue. Bail: $5,000.

All information for the crime log (unless otherwise noted) is public information and supplied by the Carson City Sheriff’s Office through probable cause reports. All subjects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. View our policy on naming defendants here.

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