Two Californians have been taken into custody on charges of executing a sophisticated phone scam targeting an elderly woman in Allegheny County. According to CBS News Pittsburgh, the Allegheny County Police Department began their investigation on November 21 upon receiving a complaint from a 71-year-old Crafton resident regarding a disturbing phone call two days prior, which falsely claimed to represent the Amazon Fraud Department.
The victim was led to believe by the scammers, identified as 34-year-old Shuai Jiao and 35-year-old Daxue Yang, that her Amazon profile had been linked to over $360,000 in illicit activities involving firearms, narcotics, and pornography, according to documents cited by WPXI, and that she could face criminal charges unless she followed their instructions to "rectify" the situation, which led her to transfer $97,400 from her bank account to purchase gold coins.
These scammers, with no known ties to Pittsburgh, further victimized the elderly woman by abusing her trust and manipulating her to act in secrecy to protect her financial assets from the alleged hackers of her Amazon account. They promised a check for a new bank account once she handed over the gold. The scam began to unravel when the Allegheny County Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation collaborated with the victim to trace the scammers, who were subsequently arrested in the parking lot of a Pittsburgh Giant Eagle store.
The charges brought against Jiao and Yang include theft by unlawful taking, theft by deception, and financial exploitation of an older adult. As their arraignment confirms, both are currently detained at the Allegheny County Jail without bail.
