DOJ: Henderson man indicted in seniors scam, millions lost

A Henderson resident was indicted Friday for what prosecutors described as his role in a scheme that resulted in over 2,000 elderly people losing $27 million, according to a press release from the Department of Justice.

Zhao Wang, 40, was arrested the morning of July 31, and law enforcement conducted a search of his home. He and four others from Southern California were indicted on charges of fraud and money laundering, the release said.

The conspirators used pop-up ads, emails and phone calls in order to get victims to contact scam call centers in India, the indictment said. In many cases, they had people install desktop software that conspirators were able to use to gain access to their computers.

The perpetrators were said to have gained the victims’ trust and then use technical support, government impersonation, bank impersonation and refund scams to get people to send them money through wire transfers or cash in express mail packages, according to the DOJ.

The men used fake names and addresses of retail locations and picked up packages with fake IDs, the indictment said.

Afterwards, prosecutors said, they allegedly laundered the money through cryptocurrency transactions to co-conspirators in India.

A text recovered from one of the California defendants, Xin Wang described this process.

“My bosses launder over one million US dollars in a week,” he wrote.

The release said that Southern California is a popular destination for domestic scams.

“Each day swindlers entangle unsuspecting seniors into scams to steal their hard-earned savings,” U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath said in the press release. “We urge everyone to use caution and consult with others before sending money to strangers they know only through phone calls, texts, or a computer.”