The Placer County Sherriff's Office (PCSO) is sharing information regarding the arrest of a scammer who was allegedly taking advantage of an elderly woman.
On Tuesday, June 10, the PCSO Investigations Unit arrested 36-year-old Yunming Fan of San Gabriel, California.
Officials say that Fan made contact with an elderly woman online and allegedly told her that she owed thousands of dollars to an online payment app due to a computer error.
She was told that to satisfy a debt, she would have to withdraw cash and provide it to a courier who would come to her house.
The victim provided a small amount of money, but then realized it was a scam and contacted the sheriff's office.
Detectives with PCSO monitored communications with the suspect over the phone, who had upgraded their demands to tens of thousands of dollars.
On Tuesday, Fan arrived at the elderly woman's house in Auburn to pick up the remaining money - after he left the house, Fan was stopped and arrested on charges of conspiracy and theft by false pretenses - felony charges.
After further investigation, officials found out that Fan may not have been the only person in the area conducting these types of cash pickup scams.
PCSO has provided images of Fan and his car, in case any other victims are out there who may recognize him as a suspect in their own incident.
