The Brief
- Scammers are pretending to be police officers in China and targeting members of San Francisco’s Chinese community, police said Thursday.
- In one case, a victim lost $23,000 in the scam after sending a wire transfer.
- SFPD says staff that speak Mandarin, Cantonese, and Toisanese are available for victims.
SAN FRANCISCO – San Francisco authorities are sounding the alarm about an identity scam targeting the Chinese community where the alleged perpetrators pretend to be police officers and healthcare providers in China to facilitate theft.
How the scam works
Officials said the victim would receive a call that appeared to be from a healthcare provider. The suspects would say they worked at the provider’s insurance claim department and ask the victims if they had undergone surgery in China recently.
As expected, the victim would deny, prompting the suspects to tell the victim that someone had submitted personal information in a fraudulent claim.
They would then transfer the victim to other suspects posing as police officers from a city in China, after telling the victim they wanted to file police reports for the victims’ allegedly compromised personal information.…