Federal grand jury indicts scammers, Warren & Canton elderly among victims

A federal grand jury has delivered a ten count indictment against two New York men that allegedley defrauded Northeast Ohioan elderly out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

The alleged victims were from Warren, Canton, Willoughby and Cleveland Heights.

The unsealed indictment claims the scammers are 28 year old Jinrong Shi of New York, New York and 27 year old Jiyand Zhong of Little Neck, New York who were both a part a criminal network preying on Northeastern Ohio elderly.

The indictment claims they operated "tech support" and "grandparent" scams.

Tech support scams revolve around deceiving victims into believing that their devices or online account have been compromised and then convincing them to pay for assistance or provide their private information to resolve the issue which can then be used to access the victims' accounts.

Grandparent scams attempt to deceive victims into believing their grandchildren are in legal trouble and require financial assistance. 

Once the victim withdrew money Shi and Zhong collaborated with other scammers posing as "fraud callers" to speak to the victims and gather information which would be passed on to "fraud collectors" who would meet with victims in person to collect cash or other valuable items.

In other instances victims would be instructed to mail cash to locations the scammers controlled.

In each case the cash was then processed through a network of money laundering facilities including cryptocurrency accounts in China.

According to the indictment the scammers stole more than $200,000 from Ohio victims.

Both Shi and Zhong has been charged with conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, wire fraud, mail fraud, and money laundering conspiracy, and each face up to 20 years in prison.

The investigation leading up to the idictment was led by the FBU Cleveland Division in cooperation with the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office and the Cleveland Heights Police Department.

Reports of suspected elder financial abuse can be submitted here.