Man sentenced to two years probation for scamming elder out of thousands of her life savings
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — A man accused of scamming a San Diego woman out of thousands of her life savings learned he will not go to prison. During his sentencing, Zhi Gao was ordered to two years of felony probation for attempted burglary.
The sentence comes from a plea agreement when Gao pleaded guilty to attempted burglary and paid back the amount stolen from the victim.
However, the deputy district attorney said Gao is just a piece of this prevalent scam that has taken millions of dollars from thousands of San Diegans.
“You will be granted felony probation through the court, it remains a felony,” said a San Diego County Superior Court Judge.
Prosecutors said Gao was a courier in a theft ring that defrauded a 65-year-old San Diego woman out of thousands of dollars.
Prosecutors said it started last October when the woman’s computer froze and then a message appearing to be from Microsoft popped up with a number to call.
“The scammers quickly convince our victims that because their computers have been hacked that their financial accounts are also at risk,” said Scott Pirrello, San Diego County Deputy District Attorney.
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The woman called the popup number and got charged $120 to fix the problem, but prosecutors said the scammers were not done.
Pirrello said suspects from around the world would instruct the woman to hand over money or gold to a courier while they “investigate” the bank fraud.
“And what they are asking our victims to do is to transfer money out of their bank accounts into another account that they link is to save their money. They think they’re working with government or their bank to actually save their money from the hackers,” Pirrello said. “A scammer might ask them to wire a certain amount, they might come to pick up cash, they might ask our victims to send cryptocurrency.”
The woman eventually gave more than $200,000 from her life savings to various scammers.
Pirrello said this included when Gao drove from Los Angeles to San Diego to collect $30,000 from the women. However, the woman’s family had already reported the suspicion to the police, who with the FBI and DA’s office set up a sting operation.
“He was arrested by our task force who was waiting for him at the victim’s house,” Pirrello said.
Gao’s guilty plea of attempted burglary, plus reimbursing the victim her $30,000 allowed him to avoid a prison sentence.
“For our victims, every pen counts that we can get back because sadly, for 99.9% of our victims when they fall victims to these, it’s too late we can’t get their money back. So it is a real success that we were able to get this family just $30,000 back,” Pirrello said.
Gao must follow the rules of his probation including not owning a firearm, or he will go to prison to serve his full sentence of a year and six months.
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