Chinese restaurants in Las Vegas are warning each other of a suspected scam after many received demands for payments and threats of lawsuits, reports KTNV.
One restaurant owner says he received pictures via WeChat from someone claiming he found fragments of a metal scrubber in their food which caused their child to be injured. The photos came with a demand for payment for medical treatment.
“With business hard to come by right now, we’re afraid. We’re afraid they will spread the word and say my restaurant did this and that,” said Jun Ren.
When Ren talked to other restaurant owners, she discovered they had received the same photos with the same claims and demands.
According to Yahoo, at least six other Chinese restaurants received similar threats in the past few months.
Shannon Yang who administers a Las Vegas Chinatown website has reached out to the FBI for help. Yang is doing what she can to warn others.
The FBI refused to confirm or deny whether it is investigating.
Yang told KTNV this appears to be a Chinese on Chinese crime as the threats have been made in Mandarin.
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