Sunday, December 8, 2013

Latest scam targets elderly Asians

From the Queens Courier:

A 50-year-old con artist has admitted to duping three Queens women out of nearly $5,000 through a phony “blessing” scam, officials said.

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said Fengluan Qin confessed Thursday to using an ancient con game to take jewelry and large sums of cash from three unsuspecting Flushing women, between 52 and 72 years old.

Qin convinced the victims to place their cash and valuables into a bag for a “blessing ritual” that would cure their families of sickness and bad luck, before swapping the bags and stealing the goods, Brown said.

Victims of the hoax have lost $1.3 million within the last year to different crews moving throughout the city, according to Inspector Brian Maguire, commanding officer of the 109th Precinct.

Out of about 50 cases citywide, more than $500,000 has been pilfered from victims in the 109th precinct alone, Maguire said.

According to Brown, the scam that targets mostly elderly immigrant women is prevalent in Asian communities nationwide.

The district attorney’s office said Qin, a Chinese national with an expired visa, was believed to be living in Flushing, though she did not provide an address to authorities.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

those chinese sure do love to play joke

Anonymous said...

Ahh....this is what happens when you dont deport the illegals like they should be....but .if youre dumb enough to fall for something like that, then you deserve what you got. People love to play victim when something dumb happens to them as if they had no common sense in the first place! Im sorry but these elderly people have been around long enough to know what's a scam and whats not a scam. My father is 72 years old and grew up in the bx, he can see a scam coming from a mile away!

Anonymous said...

Let's talk about elderly Asians scamming the US gov't.

According to my Asian friends (the ones that actually like and respect the US - they came over years ago) it's common for the elderly to put all their money in their kids' names and go on welfare and food stamps. I see well-dressed elderly Asians going through my garbage every week in North Flushing.

It's really hard to muster up any sympathy. It just feels as though most Asians are major con artists and some are now getting a taste of their own medicine!

Really - they have to screw over little old ladies???

Anonymous said...

Why not just tell the police with a straight face that the valuables magically disappeared once the spirits were appeased?

Anonymous said...

The PRC is the ultimate scam, dumping their elderly on our welfare system to avoid their economy crashing because of their one child policy

Anonymous said...

anyone dumb enough to believe that their valuables will be blessed by a complete stranger deserves what they get