Blessing scam targets older Chinese women around the world

Chinese communities are being targeted by scammers who are trying to trick older women out of their valuables by convincing them that their loved ones are in danger.

Police are investigating and families of victims are trying to find the perpetrators after a wave of cases hit the streets in the UK, US, Australia and Canada.

“The Blessing Scam” is an elaborate crime street drama. A gang, usually consisting of three women, perform carefully rehearsed scripts in Cantonese for unsuspecting victims.

Mungnee is a Malaysian-Chinese Londoner in his 60s. She was on her way to yoga in Harrow Road, west London, when she was approached by a crying woman. The woman asked in Cantonese if Mengni knew a specific Chinese medicine therapist in the area because her husband was ill.

Soon, a second Cantonese-speaking stranger appeared, claiming she knew the therapist and offering to take them to see him. Mungnee was moved and keen to help the distraught woman. On a quieter side street, a third woman joined the group, claiming she was related to the therapist and going to see if he could help.

When she returned from talking to the therapist for 15 minutes, she received disturbing news. Through his mysterious powers, he apparently discovers that Monny is also in danger. He seemed to miraculously know about her marital problems and the tingling pain in her right leg – these were things that Meng Ni had not told them.

But what happened next shocked Monnie.

“In three days something will happen to your son and he will die.”

The woman told Monney that the healer could bless and protect her adult son.

The ladies told her: “You need to bring a handful of rice and put as much gold and cash in the bag as possible”. They will bless valuable items.

Mungnee said she felt reassured by the promise that her belongings would be returned after the blessing.

One of the women rushed Mungnee home to collect her jewelery before going to the bank to withdraw £4,000 in cash from her savings. Valuables were placed in plastic bags.

Mungnee thought this must be the moment when packages were exchanged.

“Lightning speed – her hands were so nimble. I didn’t see anything.

After returning home, Mengni was surprised to find that there was only a brick, a cake and two bottles of water in the black bag. She said: “That’s when I felt cold… and then I told my son. “I think I was lied to. I was lied to.

Some of the items stolen had been passed down from generation to generation through her mother.

Monney’s experience is a textbook example of the blessing scam. The BBC spoke to a number of victims who all told similar stories – from distraught strangers to claims that evil spirits were threatening relatives. In many cases, even the fictional therapist’s name is the same—”Mr. Xu.”

All the victims were defrauded within a few hours, and in Mungnee’s case, the entire scam took only about three hours from start to finish.

Angel Shen is a law professor at Northumbria University and a former Chinese police officer. She believes the blessing scam is the latest example of a centuries-old tradition of street crime exploiting spiritual beliefs.

“Chinese people tend to keep some valuable jewelry, especially jewelry made of gold, silver, and jade, believing that they have a protective effect,” Shen explained.

Victims believed the items were blessed to provide greater protection, she said.

In May, Tuyet van Huynh launched a social media campaign to raise awareness of the blessing scam after her mother was defrauded of tens of thousands of pounds.

Her mum was shopping in Upton, east London, when three women playing identical roles convinced her that her son was being threatened by evil spirits.

Over the past year, police in the United States, Canada and Australia have issued warnings about blessing scams.

In the UK, both Mungnee and Tuyet’s mothers reported the crime to the Metropolitan Police, who also revealed that they were Investigating a number of cases in the Islington area of ​​London.

Tuyet also received reports of other incidents in Lewisham, Romford, Liverpool and Manchester.

She began collecting CCTV footage from the area close to her mother to investigate what happened. Tuyet said the footage showed her mother “following every instruction to the point where she was like a zombie”.

Tuyet’s mother could not explain how the con man lured her with stories of healers, as she was decidedly not superstitious or spiritual.

Tuyet wondered if there was something else involved. She began researching whether there was a drug that could put her mom under the influence of someone while still keeping her awake, collecting her valuables from hiding places around her home.

She had a theory: “It could be a drug called Devil’s Breath.”

Scopolamine, commonly known as Devil’s Breath, is used to treat motion sickness. In appropriate doses, it has been reported to make people highly suggestible – temporarily impairing a person’s free will. It can be injected into victims on the street without them realizing they’ve been drugged.

Tuyet has no evidence that the drug was used in her mother’s case or in any other case. It is one of the few drugs capable of producing such a sobering effect, and it has been used in robberies in Ecuador, France and Vietnam, as well as Murder and sexual assault in Colombia.

While it’s unclear whether this drug is linked to the UK blessing scam, even if it is, it’s difficult to say for sure.

Drugs spread through the body very quickly, so by the time Tuyet tried to get her mother to take a drug test the next day, it was too late.

Lisa Mills, a fraud expert at the charity Victim Support, said there may be other reasons why the scam is so effective and that it is set up to attract victims quickly.

“You meet people who look like you because you know they look like you. They are women, your age, they speak your language,” she explains.

The scammers are still on the loose, but some victims’ families are determined to find them

“I told the police I would do whatever it takes to catch these people,” Mungnee said.

What disturbs her is that the scammers are Chinese: “They are deceiving their own people”.

Additional reporting by Austin Landis in Columbia.