Recently graduated Chinese student at Purdue scammed out of $310K since February
The 21-year-old received a call in February from a supposed insurance company in China saying his claim was denied, but the man hadn't filed a claim, police said. The "insurance company" then transferred his call to a Chinese "police agency"; the person on the phone accused him of money laundering, police said.
The "police agency" speaker told him for $100,000, they could quickly resolve his court case, so the student made three payments totaling $100,000, police said. Two of those payments went somewhere in China, and the third went to Portugal, police said.
Later in the spring, the student was told he was on the U.S. deportation list, but for only $200,000, he could be removed from that list.
A man showed up at his West Lafayette apartment to collect the money in person, police said. There are no cameras in the area of the man's apartment, so police do not have a description to track down the collector, police said.
Later, someone involved in this scam allegedly told the student he needed to transfer $70,000 in cryptocurrency. The student told the scammers he only had $10,000 in cryptocurrency, and he transferred the money to the criminals, police said.
Recently, the student spoke with his father about the transactions, and his father told him it was a scam and he should call the police, they said.
The student graduated in May with a bachelor's degree in business management, according to a Purdue spokesman. He has since left the West Lafayette area, police said, noting there is little that they can do to recover the man's money.
This is not an uncommon scam on foreign students, West Lafayette police Lt. Jon Eager said. The best way to prevent these crimes is by educating potential victims about the scams so they can avoid becoming a victim.
The Journal & Courier emailed the former student for comment. He has yet to respond.
Reach Ron Wilkins at rwilkins@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @RonWilkins2.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Scammer preys on recently graduated Chinese student at Purdue
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