Chinese national arrested for picking up $15,000 from elderly victim as part of cyber scam

Staff report

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Xin Liu, 40, a Chinese national whose address is listed in Apopka, was arrested on November 27 for participating in a scheme to defraud an elderly Gainesville victim of $15,000.

The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office asked the Gainesville Police Department to make contact with a victim in Gainesville after Liu was arrested in Manatee County for participating in a scheme to defraud victims via cyber intrusion and phone scams. The detective said the Gainesville victim’s address was found in Liu’s phone.

The Gainesville victim told a GPD detective that he had been the victim of a scam but had not reported it because he was embarrassed. The victim, who is 72 years old, said he believed he had lost $60,000 in the scam but could only confirm the amounts of two transactions; he said one of those involved an Asian female who came to his house on July 30 to pick up $15,000.

The victim said the scam began with a pop-up on his computer; he clicked on it and received a call from someone who said they were with the Department of the Treasury and claimed people had taken his identity and had been slowly removing money from his account to purchase Bitcoin. The victim allowed that person to remotely log in to his computer to “verify this” for him, and then they convinced him to send them money “to resolve the issues.” The victim said they told him not to speak to his bank because the suspects had accomplices inside his bank.

In one instance, the victim was told to transfer $20,000 to a Wells Fargo account; he also said he mailed money to a business in California, but he could not recall the amount of that transaction.

In a post-Miranda interview in Manatee County, Liu reportedly gave many conflicting statements and changed her story several times, but she finally said she had downloaded a Chinese social media app and had seen a post advertising work as a driver; she said she was paid to pick up packages and take them to other people. She said she was told that all of the clients were elderly, but she claimed that she did not know what was in the packages; she said she gave the packages to an Arabic man in St. Petersburg.

Liu reportedly admitted eventually that she was told to take part of the cash from each pick-up before delivering the package to the man in St. Petersburg, and she admitted that she knew most of the packages contained documents and/or money.

Liu reportedly said she assumed that the elderly clients were being taken advantage of, but she said she continued to pick up the “packages” because she did not know for sure that it was a scam.

A search of Liu’s phone reportedly showed that she was in the vicinity of the victim’s address on July 30, and the victim’s address was found in text messages between Liu and the company that had advertised on the social media app.

The text messages also reportedly told Liu she should not “let yesterday’s situation happen again,” and the Manatee County detective reported that she had picked up a “package” on July 29 in Manatee County and had portrayed herself as an FBI agent, but the victim became suspicious and took pictures of Liu and her vehicle.

Liu has been charged with participating in a scheme to defraud. Her full criminal history is unavailable; according to the sworn complaint, she is a Chinese citizen, but her legal status is not provided. Judge James Colaw ordered her held on $250,000 bail.

Articles about arrests are based on reports from law enforcement agencies. The charges listed are taken from the arrest report and/or court records and are only accusations. All suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.