On May 23, 2025, the Schenectady County Sheriff’s Office in New York arrested 22-year-old Zhexxun Sun and 52-year-old Zhigang Wei for serving as money mules for a PayPal refund scam, where:
- The victim (in this case, a 90-year-old man), receives an email about a $249 charge for an unknown service, urging him to call.
- The scammers will answer the call under the guise of PayPal, only to falsely claim the victim received a refund of $30,000.
- In order to avoid “hefty fines from the IRS,” the victim was asked to withdraw all the money from his bank account and hand it off to a designated courier, or money mule.
Sun and Wei were arrested on charges of third-degree grand larceny and 6th-degree conspiracy before being released on their own recognizance. The two have since attempted to flee to Canada, with Sun being taken into custody on two outstanding warrants.
https://www.news10.com/news/crime/two-arrested-in-schenectady-county-scam-investigation/