Cornwall Borough police warn of high-value scams targeting local residents

Cornwall Borough police have issued a warning about scams that, in recent months, have cost local residents more than $300,000.

According to a release from borough police Chief Brett A. Hopkins, the department in the last three months has investigated several scams over the internet and telephone lines that, combined, resulted in a loss of approximately $326,000.

In one incident, the victims received an email from a fake Discover account indicating that fraudulent charges had showed up on their card. The email instructed them to download an app, which gave the suspects access to view the victims’ bank accounts.

A suspect then identified himself as an agent working in a bank’s fraud department who was investigating a bank official suspected of stealing money from accounts. The “agent” asked one of the victims to assist him with the investigation by withdrawing $30,000 in cash, then waiting for someone to come by their house to pick it up. Later, according to police, a man in his 40s of Chinese descent came to the house and exchanged a password with victim, then collected the money and assured the victim the money would be deposited back into the victim’s account.

It wasn’t.

The fake agent later asked the victims to buy $180,000 in gold bars from a local dealer, then sent a courier to pick the bars up at their home. The victims told police that “a dark-skinned male showed up in their driveway operating a black vehicle with a registration of DMV-7690,” exchanged another secret password with the victims, and took the gold bars away with him. Again, the money was never deposited back in the victims’ account.

Most of the communications between the suspect and victims was accomplished using WhatsApp, a free messaging program, “which can be problematic,” Hopkins said in the release.

In a separate incident, a victim received a phone call from a man identifying himself as a representative of the Federal Trade Commission. The fake agent told the victim the FTC was investigating Fulton Bank and said there were indications that money from the victim’s accounts was being withdrawn and sent to Mexico. The victim was asked to help the FTC catch the dirty employee by withdrawing $24,800 from his account, then meeting with a courier at the entrance to Cornwall Manor on Boyd Street. (Fulton Bank has a page here on scams targeting their customers.)

Police said the suspect arrived in a white VW Atlas, possibly with a black roof. The suspect, who appeared to be of Asian descent, parked at the Cornwall Post Office, then met with the victim and exchanged secret pass codes. The victim gave the $24,800 to the suspect, at which point the suspect walked back to his vehicle and left.

The police investigation that followed revealed the incident was a scam to extort to cash, Hopkins said. Cornwall Borough police identified the vehicle and its owner as being from Brooklyn, New York, and information on his identity was shared via the Criminal Justice Network. Later, borough police received a call from an officer with the Clifton, New Jersey, police department indicating they had two men of Chinese descent in custody for trying to extort money from a person there using the “grandparent scam,” in which a person calls someone posing as a grandchild in desperate need of money because of an emergency. Police said the white VW Atlas was linked to the suspects arrested in Clifton, and in their possession was a video of a money count outside Cornwall Manor that matched the incident described.

The suspects were identified as Yongchang Lin, 41, and Yuhui Chen, 32, from Brooklyn. The suspects were taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and are being held for the duration of the investigation, which is being handled by the FBI office in Pittsburgh. Hopkins said they anticipate indictments to be filed against the suspects for the criminal enterprise.

And, in yet another incident, a victim received a call from a woman identifying herself as Jennifer, an agent with Fulton Bank. This victim was also told that someone at the bank was stealing money from accounts, and the fake bank agent told the victim to transfer their money into a “safe account,” for which “Jennifer” provided the account information. The victim transferred $77,000 into the account. A later police investigation showed that the money was gone from the account.

Hopkins said he wanted to stress that local residents should not talk to anyone on the phone or on the internet about personal finances. Anyone who receives a call telling them their money is being stolen should “immediately hang up the phone and contact your local law enforcement,” Hopkins said.

“These sophisticated criminal enterprises are at work in Central PA,” the chief said in an email, noting that the proceeds of the scams are often sent back to their homelands “to fund various criminal organizations.” It’s also possible, Hopkins warned, that meetings with a courier “could turn violent” if a pickup doesn’t go according to plan.

Hopkins also urged people to check on their older relatives to make sure they aren’t falling prey to any scams. Scams often seem like legitimate calls, he said, so anyone with questions should call the Cornwall Borough PD at 717-274-2071.

“Hopefully this will help prevent someone from losing their life savings,” he said.