A San Leandro woman, Qingyun Chen, has been arrested on multiple felony charges after allegedly defrauding elderly victims out of large sums of money by convincing them their computers were infected with a virus. The Marin County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scam report in September, where a victim was misled into withdrawing funds to pay for a fake computer virus service.
Chen is suspected of being involved in a large-scale fraud scheme that targeted elderly individuals throughout the Bay Area. Victims were instructed to contact what they believed was a legitimate source for assistance, only to be directed to withdraw money and hand it over to couriers.
Following an investigation, Marin County Sheriff’s investigators, along with Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies, executed search warrants at two homes in San Leandro on Wednesday. Chen was arrested, and evidence of her crimes, including a large amount of cash, was recovered.
Chen, who is believed to be responsible for multiple scams in the region, has been booked on charges of grand theft and theft/embezzlement of an elder adult. Due to the significant amounts of money involved in the fraud, her bail has been set at $2.5 million.