Five Chinese nationals have been charged in connection with a plot to steal from an elderly Chinese woman in New York by telling her they could ward off the evil spirits, reports the NY Observer.
The scam which seems to have started in California has spread all the way to the East Coast and Hawaii.
It typically works like this. A group of people convince a superstitious victim she’s been cursed by evil spirits, then offer to cleanse all her valuables before the spirits harm the woman’s family.
The victim is asked to put her valuables in a bag so they can be blessed. It is during the blessing that the bag is switched and the perpetrators run off with the valuables.
The five suspects were all arrested when a woman called police when she realized what the men were trying to do to her.
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