CANTON, Mich. (WXYZ) — Canton Police body cameras were rolling as a fraud suspect sought to scam an 84-year-old woman of $25,000 on December 17. That was after he and another man allegedly conned her out of another $40,000 just days before.
Needless to say, the plot did not go as planned.
“It’s sad. You’ve got an elderly person who worked really hard their whole lives. To have their earnings taken from them is really terrible,” said Erin Downs.
Downs and Laura Hahn are the victim’s daughters. They monitor her accounts and were stunned to find three large withdrawals for a total of $65,000 in December.
“We contacted our mom and questioned why that had happened, and she told us we knew that wasn’t right. We contacted the local police department,” Downs said.
Investigators say a scammer cold-called the woman, pretending to be a senior fraud officer at her bank.
“They’re very convincing,” said Captain Joseph Bialy of the Canton Police Department. “They convinced the victim that there was an error in her account, and because of that error, she owed them money.”
That second suspect, who has not yet been caught, told the woman his assistant would collect the money from her home.
Li Biao, a Chinese national who police say is in the country illegally, was that bag man. He collected $40,000 from the woman on two separate occasions.
Canton Police entered the picture after the suspected scammers set up a third pickup for another $25,000. Officers waited at the woman’s home on the day of the exchange. When Biao arrived and got the money in hand, they sprang into action.
“It was nice to see a collaborative effort from the police department resulting in positive outcomes placing somebody in custody, especially with the circumstances surrounding this incident where an elderly victim was taken advantage of for quite a bit a sum of money,” said Captain Bialy. “So, for the Canton Police Department to get her back some of that money or at least stop the loss of money was very satisfying for us.”
Biao is facing a pair of felony charges for fraud and obstructing police. Downs and Hahn are hoping no one else experiences what their mother did.
“My recommendation for people in our situation would be really take as many preventative measures as you can even if you think your mom would never fall for that, your parents would never fall for that,” said Hahn.
Cyber security and fraud expert David Derigiotis of Flow Specialty says the case is a textbook example of social engineering.
“Social engineering is psychological manipulation. It’s motivating people to take some type of action that’s typically harmful to them. That’s what we saw in this case,” said Derigiotis. “Usually it’s impersonation of governmental authority, law enforcement. In this case, it was a ‘fraud official’ who they claimed to be. And they’re getting an individual to take action, pulling cash.”
Derigiotis says there are a few things to keep in mind if you receive a phone call like the 84-year-old victim did.
“Know that if you are prompted to take some immediate action where you don’t feel comfortable, where it’s an unsolicited communication that you didn’t initiate that text, email, phone call, hang up, delete it and reach out to the company separately.”
Canton police are still investigating this case—working to find the other parties involved. As for Li Biao, he is due back in court next week.
