By T. Jayani, JadeTimes News
Chinese people worldwide are being targeted by a sophisticated scam where criminals impersonate Chinese police. A British Chinese woman shared her harrowing experience with us, revealing how she handed over her life savings to con artists who appeared in police uniforms during video calls and even gave her a virtual tour of what looked like a police station. Helen Young, still haunted by nightmares, recalls the two weeks when she genuinely believed she was on China's most wanted list.
The scammers, posing as Chinese police, convinced the London based accountant that she was under investigation for a massive fraud in China. Helen was shown fabricated evidence implicating her in a crime she knew nothing about. When the fake police threatened her with extradition to China, she sent them her £29,000 life savings as "bail money" in a desperate bid to stay in the UK. “I feel foolish now,” Helen admits. “But it was so convincing; I had no reason to doubt it.”
Helen’s story is not unique, many within the Chinese diaspora have fallen victim to similar scams. Chinese embassies and the FBI have issued warnings about these police impersonation scams. In one extreme case in Los Angeles, an elderly woman handed over $3 million to avoid extradition. The scams typically begin with an innocuous phone call. In Helen's case, it was from someone claiming to be a Chinese customs officer, alerting her to an illegal parcel sent in her name. Helen, believing someone had stolen her identity, was transferred to "Officer Fang," a man who claimed to be a policeman in Shenzhen. Helen asked for proof, and during a video call, she saw a man in uniform who matched the ID he showed her. Officer Fang then gave her a virtual tour of a seemingly real police station.
“All my doubts vanished at that moment,” Helen says. “I apologized for my caution, but I felt I had to be sure.”
During their conversation, Helen heard background announcements about her case. Officer Fang then shifted the focus from the illegal parcel to a large financial fraud investigation, presenting Helen with a fake bank statement showing a vast sum in her name. He convinced her that she needed to help catch the real criminals to prove her innocence. Helen was made to sign a confidentiality agreement under threat of imprisonment and forced to download an app that allowed the scammers to monitor her constantly.
For the next few days, Helen tried to maintain a semblance of normalcy at work while working on a personal statement detailing her entire life. Then, Officer Fang informed her that several suspects were in custody, showing her their written confessions naming her as their boss. Helen was even sent a video of a man confessing to the crime and implicating her, although the man's face was obscured by a large mask.
Believing she was in serious trouble, Helen was convinced when Officer Fang threatened her with extradition, even though she was a British citizen. He told her she had 24 hours to pack before being taken to the airport, but she could avoid extradition by raising bail money. After sending her bank statements, Helen transferred £29,000.
“I felt awful because I had promised my daughter that money for her first home,” Helen says. But the scammers returned, demanding another £250,000. Desperate, Helen tried to borrow the money from a friend, who alerted her daughter. Helen finally broke down and revealed everything to her daughter, hiding their conversation under a duvet to avoid being overheard by the scammers. Her daughter explained it was a scam, and Helen's bank eventually refunded her money. However, the ordeal left Helen sleep deprived and mentally exhausted, causing her to crash her car twice.
In other cases, some victims, unable to meet the scammers' financial demands, have been coerced into faking their own kidnappings to extort ransom from their families. Detective Superintendent Joe Doueihi of New South Wales Police has warned about these “virtual kidnappings,” where victims are made to record themselves in distressing situations to trick their families.
Some scam victims are manipulated into helping scam others, believing they are working for the Chinese government. Experts believe many of these scams are orchestrated by Chinese organized crime groups in countries like Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos.
Awareness of these scams is growing. A student in Japan, who realized he was being targeted, recorded his conversation with the scammers and refused to hand over any money. He considers himself lucky, "I never thought it would happen to me. Be very careful when you get a call from an unknown number."
