YouTubers help bust major international fraud ring targeting seniors
A YouTube duo helped dismantle a $65 million international fraud ring that scammed thousands of seniors out of their savings.
In total, 28 alleged members of a Chinese organized crime group were arrested in California, New York, Texas, and Michigan following investigators' discovery of a scheme which has been ongoing since 2019.
The gang has allegedly worked with an India-based scam call, offering fake tech support or posing as bank or government officials to the US elderly victims.
Scammers used various tactics, including convincing victims that they had mistakenly received refunds. Crooks then tricked them into sending the money back as cash, wire transfers, or gift cards.
One of the victims was a 97-year-old widow of a Holocaust survivor in San Diego. According to reports which cite Kevin Mokhtari, chief of the Southern Division of the US attorney’s office, she was repeatedly targeted until losing her entire life savings.
Investigators received help in dismantling the scam from a group of YouTubers, Ashton Bingham and Art Kulik of Trilogy Media, as well as a creator known as Pierogi from the channel “Scammer Payback.”
Their channels primarily feature their encounters with fraudsters, where they bait scammers and then pose as victims to confront the criminals who come to collect the cash.
“It was kind of this perfect marriage of us already wanting to entertain people and also serving a good purpose,” Bingham said. “Something we didn’t know was such a big issue has only gotten worse over time.”
In one video, Pierogi was instructed to send a cash package to a man named “Hans Bum” in San Francisco. Trilogy Media then visited the address posing as delivery drivers and confronted a man known as Zhiyi Zhang, who used short-term rental properties to receive cash.
“Not all heroes wear capes. Some have YouTube channels,” said US Attorney Adam Gordon. “Our office will continue to be on the cutting edge of law enforcement techniques to ensure justice for vulnerable victims who have been defrauded by Chinese organized crime.”
Authorities seized around $4 million in assets from criminals, including several luxury vehicles.
The investigators have so far identified 2,000 victims (although the number is believed to be higher), and the defendants are scheduled to appear in court in the coming weeks.
