Images of suspects and their vehicle in recent blessing scam surges in San Francisco released

SAN FRANCISCO — The notorious blessing scammers who defrauded numerous elderly Chinese women victims of their life savings have been back in San Francisco since November 2024. In the latest round of scams, at least 7 victims from aged 69 to 79 lost a total of $374,000 in cash and jewelry.

Due to the culture and language barrier, there have been victims of blessing scams who did not report their cases to the Police Department since those scams first occurred in San Francisco and other metro cities in the United States over a decade ago.

San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) did not receive blessing scam reports for a number of years until January 2024. There were 4 reports of blessing scams with significant loss filed with SFPD prior to the Lunar New Year in 2024 which was on February 10, 2024.

An arrest was made on February 26, 2024 in the Los Angeles area where a 68-year-old Chinese man was arrested and suspected in connection with two blessing scam incidents in the Excelsior and Outer Mission neighborhoods on January 23 and January 25, 2024. The male suspect was later released and the charges against him was dismissed for evidential issues.

Seven victims in the latest blessing scam surges starting November 2024 were all elderly Chinese women like the vast majority of the blessing scam victims in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles and across the nation in the past decade.

All 7 new blessing scam cases occurred in the city's Asian neighborhoods including Chinatown, Sunset, Richmond, Portola, Excelsior and Outer Mission.

The following are details of 7 most recent blessing scam reports filed by victims chronologically in San Francisco:

1. Nov. 23, 2024, a 69-year-old woman lost $90,000 in cash and jewelry after she was first approached by suspects on San Bruno Avenue in Portola.

2. Nov. 24, 2024, a 75-year-old woman lost $40,000 in cash and jewelry after she was approached by suspects along the Vicente commercial corridor in the Sunset District.

3. Dec. 12, 2024, a 79-year-old woman lost $70,000 in cash and jewelry after she was first approached by suspects on San Bruno Avenue in Portola.

4. Dec. 14, 2024, a 72-year-old woman lost $14,000 in cash and jewelry after she was approached by suspects on Stockton Street in Chinatown.

5. Dec. 16, 2024, a 69-year-old woman lost $91,000 in cash and jewelry after she was approached by suspects in Chinatown.

6. Dec. 17, 2024, a 69-year-old woman lost $7,000 in cash and jewelry after she was approached by suspects in the Ingleside District.

7. Jan. 2, 2025, a 77-year-old woman lost $62,000 in cash and jewelry after she was approached by suspects in the Richmond District.

According to the SFPD, all 7 victims and 4 scammers in those cases were Cantonese speaking. Among the four suspects, three of them were women who were actively approaching each victim claiming they needed help.

The lone male suspect appeared to be the driver of a vehicle to carry out his duty for transporting three women suspects getting around different areas in the city and searching for targeted victims.

The patterns of the scammers preying on elderly Chinese women victims were almost the same. The first suspect who approached victims would ask victims if they knew any good doctors to cure some diseases that her relatives faced.

Then the second suspect would join the conversations saying she knew that doctor. The third suspect who played a role as the great doctor would join the conversations at a later time suggesting that victims should bring in all of their cash and jewelry from home for blessing ceremonies to give victims' children and family members good luck and good health.

In most of the blessing scam cases, all three female suspects would “escort” victims at both sides to go home and wait for the victims returning at a nearby location and bringing in their cash and jewelry from home. 

Then the suspects would instruct victims to put all of their cash and jewelry in plastic bags and not to tell any family members in order to make the blessings more effective for their loved ones.

The scammers would tell victims that their valuables would be kept in the same plastic bags for blessings for some time and not to open the bags until a later date, usually about several months later.

While the scammers gave instructions to victims, they were also able to switch the bags that only contained a bottle of water and some old newspapers. 

Most of the victims would be very skeptical a short time later and finally opened the bags where they found their cash and jewelry were gone.

Chinese American Police Officer Eddie Wu from the SFPD Community Engagement Division has reached out to the Chinese community for raising the awareness of the latest blessing scam surges and providing crime prevention information.

"It appears that this wave of new blessing scams may be related to those four cases in January 2024 because of the similarities between cases including the Chinese and Cantonese accents that suspects spoke as well as the structure of their operations," said Wu who speaks native Cantonese and Mandarin.

Wu, who had assisted in the blessing scam investigation starting 2007, expected that the actual number of victims in recent surges of cases should be more than 7. He asked all victims no matter if they had a loss or not to file police reports.

Most of the victims heard of blessing scams before they became victims. But it was difficult for the victims to get away from suspects once they were approached by suspects, because usually three suspects would “escort” victims to their homes at both sides like kidnapping them.

Wu said the suspects would hold victims' both arms or their clothings to make it hard for victims to walk away. Wu encouraged victims to yell for help when they were able to walk into busy areas to get the attention of others.

Most of the suspects in connection with the blessing scams were believed to be Chinese citizens who liked to travel to the United States during holidays and special festivals like the Lunar New Year in order to scam the life savings of older age Chinese immigrant women.

In the newly-released images of the blessing scam suspects, they all wore face masks and hats. "Obviously the suspects liked to use the face masks and hats to cover their faces preventing them to be recognized in the surveillance camera footage,” said Wu. "As a result, if anyone wears a face mask to approach you, you should be extra cautious and try to walk away from them."

Anyone with information is asked to contact SFPD at 415-575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411.