Asian Scam Suspects (Video)

Anyone who recognizes the suspects should contact inspectors Kim Lewis or Julie Yee at the department's Financial Crimes Unit, at 415 553-1521. Or they can phone in an an anonymous tip at 415 575-4444. There's also a tip line in Cantonese, at 415 553-9212. Other options: send a text to TIP411 with the subject line "sfpd", or submit a tip online.

The suspects in the video may be part of a ring that is already in hot water with the law. In May, three Chinese female nationals were picked up trying to leave the country, then arrested on charges of grand theft, extortion, and defrauding an elder, all related to the evil spirits scam. They are now the subject of pretrial hearings in San Francisco, allegedly having perpetrated the con on five women.

Journalist Kyung Jin Lee has been tracking the case. She says of the three dozen or so women who have come forward as victims, 10 or 11 have reported being defrauded subsequent to the arrest of the three Chinese women. "Police think the current scammers are related to the ones on trial because it's the same M.O.," Lee says. She says the con has also been run in Oakland and Daly City; SFPD's Manfredi says similar reports have surfaced in New York, Chicago, and LA.

Lee talked to the son of one of the victims, who said his mother believed the scammers because one had spoken to her of health concerns she was having. The victim was convinced to empty her safety deposit box of $20,000 in cash and $40,000 in jewelry. She then brought these to a meeting place, where the conwomen gave her a fake jade bracelet as collateral. They said they needed to take the bags containing her valuables in order to "purify the spirit" that was bedeviling her, promising to return with them when the ceremony was done. The woman was told to keep the meeting a secret.

Despite discovering that the address and phone numbers she'd been given were false and that the bracelet was worthless, the victim waited a day to notify her family because of the shame she felt at being duped. Her son says she's been traumatized, and that the family has had to replenish her savings with their own. His mother had also been holding $19,000 earmarked for his wedding -- now that's gone.

Here's a description of the scam introduced by State Sen. Leland Yee and presented in Cantonese...

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Scammers Prey on Elderly East Asian Women in San Francisco