YouTubers set trap for crime ring targeting seniors, resulting in 25 arrests

Federal agents have disrupted a long-running fraud scheme targeting seniors, arresting 25 members of a Chinese criminal gang over the past week. The twist? The agents were assisted by YouTubers who set and sprang the trap on the fraudsters, who are charged with stealing $65 million from seniors nationwide.

The criminal group, made up of Chinese nationals — many in the U.S. illegally — worked closely with India-based scam call centers to threaten seniors to return refund money that they had not actually received.

One of the victims of the fraud, which has been going since 2019, was a 97-year-old San Diego widow of a Holocaust survivor who lost her life savings.

The YouTubers — Pierogi from Scammer Payback and two members of Trilogy Media —  baited fraudsters in coordinated sting operations where they posed as victims and then confronted the criminals on camera, publishing the videos to their YouTube channels.

“Not all heroes wear capes. Some have YouTube channels,” U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon said in a statement released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California. “Our office will continue to be on the cutting edge of law enforcement techniques to ensure justice for vulnerable victims who have been defrauded by Chinese organized crime.”

According to the statement: “Videos posted in 2020 and 2021 helped law enforcement identify Zhiyi Zhang, Dudu Chen and Huajian Chen. All three are named in the indictments. The videos also helped shed light on how the conspiracy operated and led to the identification of high-level members of the organization.”

The criminals were using short-term rentals to receive the packages of money, moving often to avoid detection. The U.S. attorney’s office said that Zhang alone is linked to at least $1.8 million in losses.

“This investigation dismantled a predatory criminal organization that carried out a complex fraud scheme, manipulated victims throughout the country, and cost victims their hard-earned life savings” said Shawn Gibson, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in San Diego.

“HSI, the United States Attorney’s Office, and our law enforcement partners diligently pursued this organization to bring them to justice and help the victims that were impacted.”

“This alleged Chinese organized crime ring laundered money for fraudulent Indian call centers who targeted our nation’s elderly citizens,” said Tyler Hatcher, special agent in charge of the IRS Criminal Investigation Los Angeles Field Office. “These arrest and seizure warrants demonstrate that IRS-CI is committed to protecting our most vulnerable citizens, while also taking the profit out of crime.” 

This multiyear fraud and money laundering investigation was led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of California and Homeland Security Investigations, with assistance from the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation.