In recent years, there has been a rise in financial fraud cases targeting elderly individuals, with Chinese individuals often being used as “money mules” in these criminal schemes. Recently, Rhode Island has witnessed two consecutive cases of online fraud targeting seniors, leading to the federal detention of two suspects.
One of the suspects is 22-year-old Chinese-Canadian Jirui Liu, who is accused of acting as a “money mule” in a fraud scheme, where he fraudulently obtained $35,000 in cash and $135,000 worth of gold bars from an elderly person. On September 26, he appeared in a Rhode Island federal court facing charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and money laundering.
According to court documents, a 79-year-old senior received a pop-up message while shopping online, warning him that he was under investigation for attempting to purchase child pornography and providing a phone number to resolve the issue. The fraudsters on the other end of the line falsely claimed that his Social Security number had been compromised, used for money laundering and other illegal activities, and that the government was preparing to seize his assets.
Subsequently, the scammers arranged for the elderly person to be in contact with accomplices impersonating federal authorities and fake employees of the “Citibank Anti-Fraud Department,” claiming that the Treasury Department would be canceling his Social Security number and issuing a new one while instructing him to transfer his assets to the “government” for safekeeping during the investigation.
The first call lasted from 9:30 am to 4:30 pm, during which the fraudsters instructed the elderly person to visit multiple bitcoin ATMs to make deposits, but the transactions could not be completed. The scammers maintained contact with the elderly person and informed him that someone would visit his home to collect money. As a result, the victim withdrew $30,000 in cash, which was then picked up by an Asian man on a motorcycle at his residence.
Later on, the scammers suggested that the Treasury Department preferred gold transactions, leading the elderly victim to purchase $135,000 worth of gold bars from a Rhode Island gold dealer. After the incident, the senior reported to the police that several individuals, including bank staff and employees at the convenience store where he initially attempted bitcoin ATM transactions, had warned him of potential fraud, but the scammers instructed him not to heed their warnings.
The victim later informed the authorities that another Asian man had collected the gold bars from his residence, and both individuals needed to use the codeword “moon” for the transaction. The scammers proposed another transaction, promising the victim that they would leave $17,000 for bill payments. Realizing he had been deceived, the elderly person chose to report the incident to the authorities.
On September 25, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) set up a sting operation using fake gold bars. The victim took photos of the counterfeit gold bars and receipts and forwarded them to the scammers. The scammers informed him that someone would come to collect the bars at 2:30 pm that day, using the codeword “moon” for identification. The fraudsters also inquired about the victim’s attire and gold packaging details and instructed him to hide the gold in the packaging to prevent the “courier” from seeing it. HSI agents monitored the situation and arrested Jirui Liu when he came to collect the bars outside the victim’s residence.
At the time of his arrest, Jirui Liu was driving a rented Mercedes Benz, paying a monthly rent of $2,500. Through a Mandarin interpreter, Liu told HSI agents that he had been in the United States for nearly three months, mainly residing in New York and occasionally visiting Los Angeles. Liu mentioned that he met a Chinese individual in the game “League of Legends,” whose true identity he did not know, only recognizing the user’s name in the game.
Liu claimed he had never met this person in person and was asked to pick up a package for delivery to New York, questioning whether it contained drugs. The other party assured him it was not drugs and promised a $500 reward for delivering the “goods” to a park in New York for payment settlement via WeChat or the Ali platform.
Another case resembling the first involved a 22-year-old suspect named Kush J. Patel from Connecticut, who appeared in Rhode Island federal court on September 23 facing charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and money laundering.
In this case, after learning that a 72-year-old man might be a victim of fraud, HSI collaborated with the Rhode Island state police to investigate. The elderly man fell victim to a false popup message, believing his computer was infected with a virus, leading to his personal information being compromised and implicated in a case involving drug trafficking, money laundering, and child pornography.
The victim was instructed to contact a supposed “Federal Trade Commission agent” and was falsely told by the fake agent that his assets needed to be frozen to privately resolve the issue. Over several weeks, the impersonated “FTC agent” directed the victim to purchase three gold bars totaling over $360,000 through a wire transfer from a specific gold dealer in New York.
The elderly man bought gold bars amounting to $96,093.96, $101,233.79, and $165,762.32. The fraudsters’ associates picked up the first two batches of gold bars.
On September 21, law enforcement arranged for the victim to use a fake package for delivery and arrested Kush J. Patel when he arrived to collect it. The entire delivery process took place in a restaurant parking lot under surveillance by law enforcement officers. Patel was tracked after leaving the parking lot and eventually apprehended by the police in Connecticut.
In both cases, the scammers exploited false threats to deceive the victims out of their money until the intervention of the FBI and other law enforcement agencies successfully apprehended the suspects and brought them to justice.