Seven New York Metropolis residents have been charged in a wide-ranging, $20 million reward card rip-off that focused aged individuals nationwide, authorities stated Thursday.
The fees have been filed in Nassau County on Lengthy Island, the place a number of of the victims lived, in keeping with investigators.
Police stated the scammers used spam pop-up messages on computer systems and textual content messages on cellphones, in keeping with WABC. The messages made a wide range of false claims however all the time inspired victims to purchase reward playing cards to house enchancment shops similar to Lowe’s and House Depot.
Scammers then used the reward playing cards to purchase $20 million value of house enchancment merchandise, together with copper pipping, insulated wiring and sizzling water heaters, authorities stated. They then resold the merchandise to plumbing and development companies.
Six Queens males — Sky Lin, 36; Lifa Wang, 49; Yu Lin, 35; Jie Lin, 32; Lixi Wang, 40, and Jia Bin Chen, 39 — have been charged with cash laundering and conspiracy, Patch reported. One Staten Island man, 38-year-old Hai Tao Liu, was hit with the identical prices.
