A 42-year-old man from Brooklyn, New York, Qiao Zheng, was arrested Thursday in connection with a phishing scam that defrauded a 90-year-old South Windsor resident out of nearly $50,000. Zheng faces a charge of conspiracy to commit second-degree larceny, according to the South Windsor Police Department.
The investigation began earlier this week when the elderly victim reported to authorities that he had given $49,900 to a courier who claimed to be working on behalf of PayPal. The victim said he had received an email from someone pretending to represent PayPal, warning that a Bitcoin transaction had flagged his account.
Following the instructions in the email, the man called a support number and was directed to a fraudulent website. He was asked to transfer money to a different account, but the transfer failed. The victim then withdrew large sums of cash from several bank branches and arranged for the courier to pick it up at his home.
The situation escalated when the scammer allegedly asked the elderly man for an additional $20,000, promising a courier would collect the funds on Thursday afternoon. Police, alerted to the situation, set up surveillance. They identified Zheng as the individual arriving to collect the money and arrested him.
Zheng is currently being held on a $100,000 bond and was scheduled to appear in Manchester Superior Court on Friday.
