WALLA WALLA – Jingbing Xue, 44, from Federal Way, was arrested by Walla Walla police on Wednesday for being part of an elaborate fraud scheme. He was taken into custody following a pursuit that ended in a crash south of the Walla Walla city limits.
On Monday, a Walla Walla resident reported to police that they had been scammed on Aug. 27 when their laptop showed a pop-up warning about a scam. The victim called a number provided in the message and was connected to a woman who claimed to offer technical help. This woman reportedly accessed the victim’s computer to gather personal information which was then used by the scammers.
The victim then spoke to a man pretending to be a bank employee. He told the victim that their bank account had been hacked and that they needed to withdraw money to prevent it from being stolen by dishonest bank employees. The victim was persuaded to withdraw over $45,000 and hand it over to couriers who came to pick it up after the victim sent photo confirmations. Before the victim could withdraw an additional $35,000, a bank manager suspected fraud and alerted the police, leading the victim to report the scam…