On October 3, 2025, Allegheny Valley Regional Police, with assistance from the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested 40-year-old Chinese national Zhudi Chen for serving as a money mule for a “phantom hacker” scam, where:
- The scammers will call their victims, in this case a 76-year-old man, and falsely claim a corrupt employee with their bank was fraudulently accessing their account.
- After remotely connecting to their victims computer, the scammers will make it appear like the suspect deposited large amounts of money into the victim’s account.
- In order to “catch the suspect,” the victim was asked to liquidate their account by making large cash withdrawals totaling $130,200.
- Once the money is received, the scammers will request an additional $100,000 in the form of gold bars.
Chen is currently being held at the Allegheny County Jail in Pennsylvania and is also on hold with ICE after entering the country illegally, so I HOPE HE ENJOYS GAUTMO!