Man accused of using fake identities to steal from unsuspecting people in Western Pennsylvania

BEAVER COUNTY, Pa. — It all started with a pop-up on the home computer of a woman in New Sewickley Township.

“It instructed them to call Microsoft help and provided a phone number and our victim called that number and was kept on the phone for several hours,” said New Sewickley Police Chief Greg Carney.

Carney told Channel 11 it was an elaborate scam that sent this woman to the bank to take out nearly $25,000.

“She took it out in cash, returned to the home and was told a federal agent would come to the house and take possession of the money. Shortly after our victim returned home, an individual did appear at the house and requested the money and our victim provided the money and they left,” Carney said.

This victim wasn’t alone. Across the county, a woman in Aliquippa was a victim of the same scam, except she provided money to the scammer on multiple occasions.

According to court paperwork, she told police the scammers said she would be facing legal action over child pornography and fraud, leading her to provide the scammers with nearly $300,000 to avoid prosecution for a crime she didn’t commit.

“Usually, these scams involve gift cards or credit cards or are providing information or numbers to someone and they drain the money from those cards overseas in this case someone actually showed up to the house and that’s very disturbing,” Carney said.

Pennsylvania State Police and Aliquippa police were able to set up the scammer at the Giant Eagle in Hopewell Township, eventually taking Xinhua Chen into custody. Chen was identified by both victims as the one who collected the money. Carney told Channel 11 that Chen is undocumented from China and is facing charges for doing the same thing in Texas. It’s a scam crossing state lines.

“This is somebody that has been running these scams on the elderly population in multiple different states, and oftentimes these guys don’t get caught and the money doesn’t get retrieved,” Beaver County DA Nate Bible said.

Police are confident these aren’t the only victims. They are asking anyone who thinks they may have had a similar situation to contact their local police department.

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