by On Friday, a federal judge in San Diego sentenced a Chinese national to two years in prison for participating in a scam that defrauded six elderly people in a single week.
According to prosecutors, victims in Arizona and California gave Jiaci Liu, 35, little over $200,000 in a single week.
In June 2023, Liu was detained outside the residence of a 63-year-old Poway man in San Diego County, marking the culmination of his involvement in the hoax.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Poway resident was warned that there might be a virus on his computer when a pop-up window appeared. Prosecutors claim the phone number the pop-up gave went to a phony tech assistance hotline operated by Liu’s co-conspirators.
The victim was passed to additional co-conspirators who claimed to be employed by his bank, and he was also informed that his computer was infected with viruses. They informed him that they had found evidence of illicit money transfers.
The victim was instructed to take out his cash in order to prevent his remaining funds from being taken. After being informed that a representative of the U.S. Marshals Service would visit his home to retrieve the money, the victim became skeptical, even though he had taken out $28,000.
Liu was arrested after he got in touch with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department.
According to the prosecution, a search of Liu’s phone showed that he had taken comparable sums of money from five other victims over the previous week.
According to Liu’s plea deal, the other victims, who were between the ages of mid- to late-seventies and early-eighties, handed him at least $202,500. Prosecutors claimed that at least one victim had experienced severe financial distress.
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He entered a guilty plea to wire fraud conspiracy. Liu had been subject to a $1 million fine and a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office, Federal Bureau of Investigation, San Diego County District Attorney’s Office, Carlsbad Police Department, San Diego Police Department, and the California Highway Patrol were among the agencies that participated in the San Diego Elder Justice Task Force’s investigation of the case.
