SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The San Diego County District Attorney’s Office announced criminal charges against a man for his role in a scam that targeted an elderly woman, snatching $200,000 from her savings in the process.
“We are alerting our community about this most common scam because it is happening right now and frequently,” said District Attorney Summer Stephan.
In a joint press conference on Tuesday, the DA’s office, the FBI and local police raised the alarm about this increasingly common “tech support” scam.
They say the 65-year-old woman was using her computer when her monitor froze and received a pop-up message that appeared to be from Microsoft. The message advised her to call a number to help resolve the issue.
She then paid for the “tech support” she received.
Stephan says the scammer then knew the victim was a Chase bank customer. They later called back, posing as a Chase bank representative and told her there was fraud on her account. They ultimately scammed her out of $200,000 in cash over the course of several weeks.
The woman’s family alerted police. After an investigation, 22-year-old Zhi Gao was arrested.
According to the FBI, San Diego seniors have been scammed out of more than $76 million due to elder fraud.
“Perpetrators create a sense of urgency to produce fear and lure victims into immediate action,” said special agent Stacey Moy of the FBI Field Office in San Diego.
Moy says tech support scams, which typically originate in other countries, have the most victims nationwide.
“If we can save one elderly person from the turmoil, the pain and suffering of losing their livelihood — we want to do it today,” added Stephan.
Gao is expected to be arraigned on Friday.
