A California man sent his life savings to NYC after falling for a scam. An NYPD detective helped get it back.
NEW YORK — A man conned into shipping his life savings across the country was saved by the quick actions of one New York City Police detective.
The victim told CBS News New York investigative reporter Mahsa Saeidi he can't believe he fell for it.
California man mails $20,000 to NYC apartment after falling for scam
"It's kind of embarrassing," said victim J. Nguyen, from California.
First, a message popped up on his computer, saying his account was allegedly compromised, and to fix it, he had to make a call.
Nguyen said the scammer told him, "You have to withdraw your money and send it to the Central Bank."
"I was sort of like in a trance. I was listening to her the whole time," Nguyen said.
Hours later, they had convinced Nguyen to withdraw $20,000 cash and send it across the country to an address in New York City.
"I couldn't believe it, I did it," Nguyen said.
After he mailed the package, Nguyen suspected he had fallen for a scam and contacted the NYPD.
NYPD Det. Justin Guzman says he frequently gets calls about fraud, but this was a first.
"He said it was his whole life savings," Guzman said. "He gave me the tracking number. I saw where it was delivered to."
Guzman raced to the location, but it wasn't a bank – it was an apartment in Bayside, Queens. He managed to recover the package before the scammers got it. Nguyen would now get his cash back.
"It was a little disbelief that it was actually in there," Guzman said.
"It's a con game"
In a similar scam this year, a Brooklyn woman wasn't so lucky. According to the NYPD, she handed $100,000 to a man she was convinced to meet in person after a fake tech support call.
Police say Wei Ping Sun, of Queens, has been arrested and charged with grand larceny in connection to that scam and will be arraigned on Nov. 21.
In general, prosecutors try to make the victim whole, and they can request a court order to seize property and get the woman her money back.
"It's a con game," Guzman said.
In Nguyen's case, the pop-up scam expanded into the gift card scam, which is when scammers request a victim buy a gift card for a fraudulent reason and send them the card's number. Then, they cash in and disappear.
According the NYPD, scammers will ask for gift cards in order for the victim to allegedly avoid arrest, keep utilities on or, in Nguyen's case, to pay for tech support.
"Because his bank shut down the gift card scam, they pivoted and went a different route to try and get him to send actual cash, and he did," Guzman said.
"I have to give a lot of credit to Detective Guzman ... For some reason, he believed in me, he realized that it's real and he sprung into action," Nguyen said.
Bottom line: don't get on the phone with these people. They sound legit, they make you panic, and miss red flags.