The Pennsylvania woman lost $60,000
ALLEGHENY COUNTY, Pa. —
The FBI arrested a man after a Pennsylvania woman was scammed out of $60,000 by clicking a link on her phone and being coerced into withdrawing money and handing it over to scammers.
“What the criminals rely on is people to panic and people to act without thinking,” said Christopher Giordano, assistant special agent in charge at the FBI Pittsburgh office.
The scam began when the victim received a message on her computer claiming to involve child pornography, which Giordano identified as a significant warning sign.
“One of the main red flags that I see as a law enforcement officer is the message that she received on her computer, the victim received on her computer, discussing child pornography, making a claim of child pornography. That’s the biggest red flag to me,” Giordano said. “The problem is a lot of the people that are victimized, they go into panic mode. They think, oh my God, what did I do? Like, oh, there’s an easy way out. And then they act without really thinking things through.”
The FBI, working with the victim’s bank, PNC, used fake money for a third drop-off, which led to the arrest of Changson Huang, who came to collect the cash.
The FBI plans to use Huang’s phones to track the stolen money.
“These scams haven’t gotten more sophisticated. They’ve just become more prevalent. And the reason they’ve become more prevalent is because they keep working,” Giordano said.
Scammers often gain access to victims’ systems through links in text messages and emails, Giordano explained.
“They want people to click those links because once they have access to your system, that’s when they learn everything about you. And that’s when they go after you,” he said.