Seven New York City residents have been charged in a wide-ranging, $20 million gift card scam that targeted elderly people nationwide, authorities said Thursday.
The charges were filed in Nassau County on Long Island, where several of the victims lived, according to investigators.
Though Nassau County authorities led the investigation, the scam targeted 1,800 victims in 45 different states, even including Alaska, Newsday reported.
Police said the scammers used spam pop-up messages on computers and text messages on cellphones, according to WABC. The messages made a variety of false claims but always encouraged victims to buy gift cards to home improvement stores such as Lowe’s and Home Depot.
Scammers then used the gift cards to buy $20 million worth of home improvement products, including copper pipping, insulated wiring and hot water heaters, authorities said. They then resold the merchandise to plumbing and construction businesses.
Six Queens men — Sky Lin, 36; Lifa Wang, 49; Yu Lin, 35; Jie Lin, 32; Lixi Wang, 40, and Jia Bin Chen, 39 — were charged with money laundering and conspiracy, Patch reported. One Staten Island man, 38-year-old Hai Tao Liu, was hit with the same charges.
Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said her office is still looking to charge five more people in the case, according to Newsday.