31-01-2025
NY man arrested after 90-year-old CT man was defrauded out of nearly $50K in phishing scam
A New York man was arrested Thursday in connection with a phishing scam that duped an elderly South Windsor resident out of tens of thousands of dollars.
Qiao Zheng, 42, of Brooklyn, New York faces one count of conspiracy to commit second-degree larceny, according to the South Windsor Police Department.
Police said they began investigating on Monday when a 90-year-old man told authorities he gave $49,900 to a courier purportedly acting on behalf of PayPal. The man claimed that he had received an email from someone claiming to work for PayPal who indicated that a Bitcoin purchase had flagged the elderly man's account.
The man claimed that he contacted the support number in the email before he was directed by the individual on the phone to a fraudulent link, requesting that he transfer his money into a separate account, according to police. When the transfer was not successful, the man claimed that he went to several bank branches and withdrew cash to give to a courier who would pick up the money at his home.
After police were notified, the individual allegedly asked the elderly man for another $20,000 and told him a courier would come by to pick it up in the afternoon hours on Thursday, according to police. Investigators with the police department's Criminal Investigations Unit waited in the area until an individual who was identified as Zheng arrived, police said.
Zheng was arrested and held on a $100,000 bond. He was scheduled to appear in Manchester Superior Court on Friday.
