The woman said while she was on her computer, she had a Microsoft error message “pop-up” take over her screen with a phone number to contact, Berkeley Township police said.. Upon contacting the fraudulent number, a male claiming to be from Microsoft advised the victim her bank accounts have been compromised, police said.
Over the next several weeks, the victim was tricked into believing the scam actors she was communicating with daily were government agents with the Federal Trade Commission and were trying to help protect her money by storing it, police said. The woman provided large sums of money to the scammers, including handing cash to a courier as well as a separate wire transfer, police said.
The scam artists continued to stay in contact with her, telling her the he banks are corrupt and that she should turn over her remaining money to them for safekeeping, police said.
Officers began investigation and were able to identify the suspect and his vehicle, police said. Over the course of the following week, officers arranged for the actors to come down from New York to pick up the remaining cash from the victim, police said.
Ren Xin Huang, a Flushing resident, was taken into custody and charged with theft by deception, money laundering, conspiracy to commit theft by deception and conspiracy to commit money laundering, police said.
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