{"id":179638,"date":"2026-03-05T18:59:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T18:59:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/179638\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T18:59:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T18:59:06","slug":"deputies-use-fake-money-to-catch-man-trying-to-scam-81-year-old-lithia-woman-out-of-50k-hcso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/179638\/","title":{"rendered":"Deputies use fake money to catch man trying to scam 81-year-old Lithia woman out of $50K: HCSO"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the woman handed over $24K in real cash, deputies said they worked with her to package up $25,000 in simulated money to catch the scammer in the act. <\/p>\n

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Hillsborough County deputies say they caught a man in the act of trying to scam an 81-year-old woman out of $50,000 in cash.<\/p>\n

Detectives were first alerted on Feb. 23 that a woman was being actively scammed at her home on Loneoak View Drive in Lithia.<\/p>\n

They believe the scammers gained remote access to the woman’s computer after she clicked on a malicious email and convinced her they accidentally deposited $50,000 into her bank account.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Detectives said they learned the woman had withdrawn $24,000 from her bank account and handed the money to an unidentified courier. That courier then sent the woman a fraudulent receipt and arranged for additional payment the next day, according to the sheriff’s office.<\/p>\n

On Feb. 24, the woman was reportedly instructed to hand off another $25,000 in cash. Detectives coordinated with her to prepare simulated currency for the pickup.<\/p>\n

The sheriff’s office was conducting surveillance via helicopter when deputies said they saw 40-year-old Min Chen arriving at the woman’s home and walking away with the simulated currency.<\/p>\n

They watched him drive into a nearby plaza, where deputies on the ground moved in and arrested him.<\/p>\n

Deputies said they found the simulated currency removed from its packaging and placed on the center console of Chen’s car.\u00a0<\/p>\n


\n \"\"<\/p>\n

Chen reportedly told the sheriff’s office he is not a U.S. citizen but holds Canadian citizenship.<\/p>\n

He was arrested and charged with:<\/p>\n

organized fraud of a person 65 or older ($20,000-$50,000),theft from a person 65 of older ($10,000-$50,000) andunlawful use of a two-way communication device. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis arrest demonstrates our commitment to protecting our senior citizens from those who seek to exploit them,\u201d Sheriff Chad Chronister said in a statement. \u201cWe encourage families to speak with elderly loved ones about common scam tactics and to report suspicious activity immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

The investigation is ongoing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After the woman handed over $24K in real cash, deputies said they worked with her to package up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":179639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-179638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}