See this story at BrooklynDaily.com.
By Colin Mixson
Brooklyn Daily
Count your blessings, and then check your wallet.
A nasty band of scam artists called the Blessing Gang is praying upon the superstitions particular to elderly Chinese immigrants with a crafty con straight out of Hong Kong.
“They’re the Blessing Gang, they’re from China and Hong Kong, and they’re well trained,” said Dr. Tim Law, a member of both the Community Education Council and the Chinese immigrant community. “They prey on the people they see as weak and who can be easily taken advantage of.”
The scam typically involves three female con artists who prey on elderly, Cantonese or Mandarin-speaking women.
The first crook will strike up a conversation with the trio’s mark and make inquiries regarding the victim’s family — all the while, the con artist has a cellphone tucked in her pocket that’s dialed into schemer number two.
Shortly afterwards, the second scam artist will show up out of the blue, warning the mark about some impending tragedy that’s about to strike a particular member of her family — whose name she knows, thanks to that cellphone in her partner’s pocket — and that the only way to avoid this terrible calamity, she’ll say, is through a singular blessing, cast over all the victim’s valuables.
“She’ll come up and say things about her family and [the victim] will say, ‘Oh you have super powers, I believe you, so, I’ll go home and take all my money,’ ” explained Law.
The second scammer will lead the victim — who has gone home and collected her jewelry and cash in a special bag — to the third con who will “bless” the bag of valuables. The supposed priest then warns the mark not to open the bag for a week, lest the evil spirits find an opening and return.
Little does the victim know, her bag of valuables has been switched with a bag filled with old newspaper.
Now, Law is trying to warn people in his community to beware of these shameless crooks, and he’s enlisted the help of Assemblyman William Colton (D–Bensonhurst) and 48th district City Council candidate Chaim Deutsch to spread the word.
Unfortunately, some hapless Brooklynites have already been ruined by these conniving conwomen, according to Colton.
“I’ve been told of people losing $16,000 this way,” the assemblyman explained. “Jewelry with sentimental value, cash, and very often they don’t open the bag until it’s too late.”
Deutsch co-hosted a seminar with District Attorney Charles Hynes on April 18, where they warned community members about the scam and provided some tips on how to avoid the Blessing Gang.
The perpetrators are known to share the following characteristics, according to Hynes.
·Generally Chinese females between 30–40 years of age working in groups of three to peer-pressure the victim.
·Mandarin or Cantonese is the preferred language used to speak to the victim.
·They accompany the victim to their house walking arm-in-arm, as if they are friends, hoping to gain their trust.
·When engaging the victims, the perpetrators tend to start the conversation by asking questions of interest such as “Do you know Dr. so-and-so in the community?”
·They normally wait on the street corner of the victims’ house or somewhere close for them to bring down their valuables to be blessed or “cleansed.”
·They ask victims to bring their valuables in a red or black bag.
·They never enter the victims’ house or go close to where the victims live out of fear of being seen or caught.
Reach reporter Colin Mixson at cmixson@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-4514.