This Florida woman, 79, lost $200K to scammers. With cops in her living room, they called for $30K, kicking off a sting

Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, Shutterstock

Detectives are in your living room taking down your statement about the scam that just wiped out your savings. The phone rings. It’s the scammers, calling to set up the next pickup.

That actually happened. A 79-year-old woman in Manatee County, Florida had already lost more than $200,000 to a cryptocurrency scam, and while sheriff’s investigators were interviewing her about it, the crooks called back (1) to arrange a $30,000 cash grab — apparently with no idea law enforcement was sitting right there.

That call kicked off an undercover sting. Detectives say the ring took more than $3.5 million from more than 40 elderly victims across Florida.

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It started in July 2025, when a Manatee County man reported a caller pretending to be from the Federal Trade Commission. Detective Gary Cummings told FOX 13 Tampa Bay the formula rarely changes (2): a fake emergency and a demand to send money now.

When a woman showed up at his home to collect cash, he snapped photos of her and her car, then called police. Those photos led detectives to Xin Liu, 40, a Chinese national who, the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Florida said, was living in Apopka on an H-1B visa.

Liu was the courier on the ground. Between July 22 and July 30, 2025, she drove to at least six locations around Florida to pick up cash from victims, including one living in a Gainesville assisted-living community, attempting to collect more than $95,000 total. She worked under an alias, posing as an FBI investigator.

She pleaded guilty and, in June 2026, was sentenced (3) to 27 months in federal prison plus restitution.

Liu’s arrest led detectives to more victims, including the 79-year-old woman from the opening — already out $200,000 and being worked again. The $30,000 call came while investigators sat with her, and they used it to set up the sting that netted a second courier, a 52-year-old also charged with scheme to defraud and conspiracy.

A third courier, age 56, was later arrested on the same charges. Both new suspects are presumed innocent; the sheriff’s office has not released their names because the cases remain pending. A search of a connected home also uncovered thousands of suspected counterfeit goods, triggering a separate federal investigation.

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Why someone actually shows up at your door

The in-person pickup is what catches people off guard. When the amount is big enough — or when the asset is physical, like gold or stacks of cash — the ring sends a real human to collect it, Cummings says.

This whole thing is bigger than just Florida. The FBI logged 525 gold-courier complaints (4) and about $219 million in losses in 2024 alone. Americans 60 and older reported more than $7.7 billion (5) in losses to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center in 2025 — up 37% in a single year, with the average victim out more than $38,000.

The one move that shuts it down

The defense costs nothing: just pause.

Cummings’ advice is blunt — hang up, don’t answer the email, and verify before you do anything, whether that’s calling the real agency or looping in a family member. No government agency will ask you to pay (6) in cash, gold, gift cards or crypto, and none will send a person to your house to collect it. Anyone claiming to be from the FTC, FBI, IRS or your bank’s fraud department who then dispatches a courier is stealing it.

If you or a relative over 60 has been hit, the Justice Department’s National Elder Fraud Hotline is 1-833-FRAUD-11 (1-833-372-8311), and you can file with the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov (7).

Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells said the ring targeted the elderly and took their life savings. The break in the case was a photo and a call to police.

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