A blessing scam victim has never expected to have her full money back from investigators

(SAN FRANCISCO) H Liang was a victim of the blessing scam at Fremont over the East Bay in 2018. She had never expected that one day she would receive a check of $5,800 which was the full amount of money lost in the scam four years ago.

Two Chinese American investigators, Jason Collom of San Francisco District Attorney's Office and Jason Hui of the San Francisco Police Department, delivered the check to Liang at her Portola home in San Francisco this week.

Liang, 65, picked up the check from them unexpectedly and thanked them for their tireless investigation on the case for almost four years. "We need to support the members of the law enforcement. They have supported me and many victims. Their job has always been difficult and dangerous," said Liang.

This year also marks the 10th anniversary of blessing scam cases occurring in the San Francisco Bay Area and other metro regions across the nation which have a large Chinese community. Almost all victims in the hundreds of the blessing scam cases were Chinese American women and the majority of them were seniors.

Those scams first emerged in 2012 in the Sunset District of San Francisco. The San Francisco Police Department received more and more similar reports that the suspects were always three Chinese women who spoke Chinese language targeting one victim in each case. While the victims were also all Chinese women and many of whom were scammed with their life savings in cash.

Jason Collom, Senior Inspector at SF District Attorney's Office, was one of the very first investigators forming a world-wide task force among the law enforcement agencies focusing on the blessing scam. The members of the task force include SF District Attorney's Office and SF Police Department, U.S. Customs, Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) , New York and Los Angeles Police Departments, Hong Kong and Singapore Police Departments in Asia.

"After the 10 reports including Ms. Liang case occurred during early December in 2018, we have not received any new cases of the blessing scam as of now. We believe it is likely due to the COVID travel restrictions in China. COVID also killed their business worldwide," Collom said. The COVID pandemic first started in Wuhan, China, at late 2019. Travelers are still restricted from entering or leaving China up to the present.

According to the information released by the investigative agencies, almost all of the victims in the blessing scam cases in the nation were Chinese American elderly women. The scammers were primarily from China, including the main defendant, Juan Li, in the Liang case. Li was born in China. She was allegedly involved in the blessing scam cases back in 2012. She was not arrested at that time.

Li later became a resident in the United States and has lived in Southern California. Li was arrested in early 2019 related to 10 reports of the blessing scam happening in the San Francisco Bay Area around early December in 2018.

Collom and Jason Hui, a retired San Francisco Police Department Inspector who investigated a series of the blessing scam cases with Collom in 2018 and 2019, identified four suspects in those 10 cases. Both Collom and Hui were born in Hong Kong and speak fluent Cantonese.

Among four suspects related to 10 cases, Wudi Wu, 51, and Fuxi Dai, 45, were arrested on Christmas Eve in December 2018 at Los Angeles International Airport when they planned to board a plane returning to China. Xiu Xia Li, who is a younger sister of Juan Li, had already returned to China earlier than the arrest made and is still at large.

Juan Li, Wu and Dai were all convicted in San Francisco Superior Court and released at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. The San Mateo District Attorney's Office subsequently arrested Wu and Dai for two scam cases in Daly City. Li was not charged in the Daly City cases.

Wu and Dai were released late last year from San Mateo County and have disappeared since then. Alameda District Attorney's Office determined to prosecute Liang's case earlier this year. Li reached a plea agreement to pay the full restitution of $5,800 to Liang.

Victim Liang was born in Guangzhou and immigrated to the United States in 1993. She lived in San Francisco Chinatown for five years before she moved to her Portola home and resides there until now. Her three children, a son and two daughters, are all residents of Fremont.

On December 7, 2018, Liang visited her children in Fremont and went to shopping at an Asian supermarket. She was approached by three Chinese-speaking women in the parking lot asking for money to have the blessing procedures for her to make her children safe and healthy.

Liang was asked at the beginning to bring all her jewelry and cash to them. Because she lives in San Francisco, three female suspects instead asked her to withdraw all the money from her bank.

"I suspected something went wrong at that time. But I didn't know what to do. I withdrew all the money and gave the cash to them. In return, they gave me a black plastic bag," Liang said.

Once three women suspects got her cash, Liang said, "They held my head and told me not to turn to look at them." She opened the black plastic bag when she was back in her car. She saw all the newspapers were put inside.

Liang didn't file a police report immediately. She didn't tell the scam to her children or anyone else either. "I didn't want my family to worry for me. In comparing other blessing scam victims, many of them lost over $100,000 in cash. $5,800 was a small amount of money. As long as I was safe and healthy, I told myself that the money loss was okay," Liang said.

Liang went to Central Police Station in San Francisco Chinatown to file a report after the arrest made on Wu and Dai. It was about a month later. "I learned about the arrest of the suspects from my co-workers at the Safeway Supermarket in Oakland."

"I decided to file a report one month later, not to have my money back. I hope that I could be helpful to the law enforcement on their investigations," Liang said. "I don't speak English. I know Chinatown very well. I know there must be Chinese speaking police officers working in Chinatown. So I went to Central station to file the police report. It is totally a surprise for me to have the money back today."

"I am delighted that Ms. Liang received full restitution of the money that was taken from her," said Ron Smetana, the prosecutor of the case at Alameda County District Attorney's Office. " Getting full restitution for a victim does not happen often, so it was pleasing to be able to get the money back to Ms. Liang."