Yuxin Fu of Flushing New York was recently arrested and extradited to Massachusetts where she is facing charges of perpetrating an imposter scam in which she is alleged to have swindled a Massachusetts resident out of $46,000.  According to Barnstable, Massachusetts police, Fu posing as an agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration, called the victim and said that the victim’s Social security number was tied to a criminal investigation in Texas and that in order to prevent her money from being seized as part of the investigation she needed to put $46,000 into a “safe government account” designated by the phony DEA agent.  The frightened victim sent the money to the phony DEA agent who then vanished, until following a police investigation Fu was arrested in New York.

TIPS

Primary in this scam is the scammer posing as a law enforcement or government agent who under a variety of pretenses manipulates the victim into doing as they are told.  Scam victims often trust scammers posing as authority figures.  The scam may also seem more believable when the initial phone call appears to come from a legitimate law enforcement agent or other governmental official because the scammer uses “spoofing’ to manipulate the victim’s Caller ID to make the call look as if it indeed is coming from a legitimate source.  Imposter scams are among the most common scams.

The truth is that under no circumstances will a government agent or law enforcement officer ever tell anyone to withdraw funds from their accounts in put them into a “safe government account.”

Scammers are aware that scaring people with phony emergencies triggers the amygdala which is a part of the brain also called the lizard brain which makes us act quickly and emotionally without rationally considering the situation which is why so many people are able to be victimized by scams like this.  It is for this reason that whenever you are asked to make a payment in response to some emergency, you should take your time and analyze the situation and confirm the legitimacy of the emergency.

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