UPDATE: Zhou has been bonded out of custody alongside his brother, who was recently charged with trafficking of stolen property and tampering with evidence.
On May 23, 2025, the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office in Washington arrested 55-year-old California resident Xiaobin Zhou for serving as a money mule for a Social Security scam, where:
- The primarily-elderly victims would receive a call from a scammer who identified himself as “Daniel Lucas from the Federal Office of the Inspector General.”
- “Daniel,” who knew the victims’ name (presumably through caller ID), would threaten to arrest them on charges of money laundering and trafficking drugs through the US-Mexico border.
- The call would then be transferred to a coworker who identified himself as “David Freeman” and ordered the victim to withdraw funds from their bank account and deposit it into a “federal reserve” by handing it off to a designated courier or “money mule.”
- In order to avoid raising any suspicion, the scammers will also instruct their victims to not speak to anyone about the incident (including law enforcement) nor to research “Freeman” or “Lucas.”
Zhou was arrested as part of a combined effort between Whatcom Regional and Skagit County authorities, US Customs and Border Protection and the Dept. of Homeland Security, as he is believed to be part of a nationwide organization that stole millions from elderly victims. While he has been charged with first-degree theft, which is considered a class B felony, a traceback effort on TruePeopleSearch indicates to me that he may not be a naturalized citizen.
The scam has also been reported on our forum this past November, with @Sol having received “Freeman’s” fake badge, and even subsequent scam calls from “Officer Mike Brown,” a bhenchod impersonating AND spoofing the phone number of the Las Vegas Police Department.
https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/local/crime/article307091276.html
