NORTH READING, Mass. — A New York man has been arrested in connection with scamming an elderly resident in North Reading.
Xuejian Wu, 30 was arrested after he allegedly stole thousands of dollars from an elderly resident.
According to North Reading police, officers were contacted this week by an elderly resident in town who believed that they were being scammed by individuals on the internet.
Investigators determined that a sophisticated online scammer had unlawfully gained remote access to the resident’s computer and that they were able to successfully utilize a series of threats and intimidation to steal more than $10,000 from the victim through digital Bitcoin transactions.
After being alerted to this theft, North Reading Police discovered that the scammer was attempting to steal additional monies from the victim, this time telling the victim that federal agents would be coming to their home address to collect the remainder of their money.
On Thursday, November 14, North Reading Police arrested Wu as he arrived at the victim’s residence and identified himself as a federal agent attempting to receive the money from the victim.
Wu is being charged with a slew of larceny charges.
“Arrests such as this are not common in law enforcement. These scammers are experts in targeting our senior citizen population and using threats and intimidation through technology to victimize them and often keep them from notifying the police in time to act. In this case we were able to successfully turn the tables on a scammer who chose to target our residents, and it resulted in the successful arrest of Wu,” said Chief Zimmerman.
Wu was arraigned in Woburn District Court on Friday.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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