'Your son will die': How blessing scammers prowl streets
17 October 2024 Share Save Elaine Chong BBC Trending and Ed Main BBC Trending Share Save
BBC Tuyet van Huynh (left) is campaigning to track down the scammers
Chinese communities are being targeted by scammers who trick older women out of their valuables by persuading them their loved ones are in danger. After a wave of cases on the streets of the UK, US, Australia and Canada, police are investigating and victims' families are trying to find the perpetrators. The blessing scam is an elaborate piece of criminal street theatre. A gang of usually three women act out a well-rehearsed script in Cantonese for an audience of one - the unsuspecting victim. Mungnee is a Chinese Malaysian Londoner in her sixties. She was approached in West London while on her way to yoga, by a crying woman. The woman asked in Cantonese if Mungnee knew a specific Chinese traditional healer in the area, as her husband was sick.
Mungnee feels she was drawn in by the scammers
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