Two California Women Arrested For IRS Impersonation Scam Involving Gift Cards

Ailing Lu and Ji Hyun Lee, both 25 years old, two women from California have been arrested and charged with impersonating federal employees after they allegedly presented themselves as employees of the IRS, and stole nearly a million dollar from unsuspecting victims.

The pair typically called people and threatened to have them arrested unless they purchased a certain number of gift cards or other similar products in order to “pay” what they “owed” the government.

However, one of the latest victims of the duo grew suspicious upon being requested to pay $2,200 in Target gift cards and alerted authorities on September 4 instead.

The police were able to trace the gift cards to a specific Target store, where they identified the two women. Lu is from Los Angeles, and Lee is of Gardena.

A subsequent investigation uncovered electronics and other items to the tune of $900,000 in various locations that belonged to the two women.

However, that appears to be just the tip of the iceberg, as authorities have reason to believe that the money and purchases they have uncovered only make up a portion of what the two women had allegedly managed to steal over time.

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The investigation began on September 4th, 2019 when a victim received a “cold call” from a scammer impersonating the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The caller threatened to arrest the victim if he didn’t pay the caller in $2,200.00 of Target gift cards. Our unsuspecting victim complied and purchased the Target gift cards. The victim furnished the gift cards to the caller and later reported the incident to Fontana Police. Fontana detectives tracked the redemption of the cards to a Target store in in the Los Angeles area. Detectives and Target’s Loss Prevention Team worked together to locate surveillance video of the transactions. Target’s Loss Prevention Unit recalled a similar case where Indiana University Police were investigating a similar incident. Fontana detectives and Loss Prevention Agents compared the videos and determined the same female suspect conducted the transactions. Our detectives worked extensive leads and were able to identify two suspects, Ailing Lu (25) of Los Angeles and Ji Hyun Lee (25) of Gardena. They conducted surveillance on suspected locations and vehicles in the Los Angeles Area. Detectives stopped several vehicles during the surveillance and located items purchased with the gift cards. Detectives served search warrants on two locations and located approximately $900,000.00 in new goods including electronics, gift cards and other items purchased with gift cards from unsuspecting victims. It’s apparent these suspects were well organized and preyed on the victims’ fear of arrest across our nation. We’re encouraging the public to contact their local law enforcement agency if they received a similar call from a scammer and followed though with the scammer’s request(s). As a reminder, no law enforcement or public agency will ever ask you to pay in gift cards. We encourage the public to be wary of any “cold call.” They should scrutinize the information given to them. Conduct their own research to find a legitimate contact for the organization the person is claiming to work for and verify it’s not a scam. We believe more people are involved in these crimes and detectives will continue to follow up on leads. #scammers

A post shared by Fontana PD (@fontanapd) on Sep 20, 2019 at 3:37pm PDT

A more in-depth investigation has been launched to determine the full extent of their actions.

Authorities have taken the opportunity to remind the public that the IRS would never contact them over the phone about any issues with their account — it will all be done in writing by mail.

People should be especially wary of any threats implicating them in tax evasion and other similar schemes, and immediately notify the authorities, as well as the IRS itself.

Fontana police said in a statement: “It’s apparent these suspects were well organized and preyed on the victims’ fear of arrest across our nation. We’re encouraging the public to contact their local law enforcement agency if they received a similar call from a scammer and followed though with the scammer’s request(s).”

One local reacted to the two arrests by saying: “I work at a Bank, we have clients lose millions as they are victims of these types of scams. This is one type of many scams. Be on the lookout people! If it’s too good to be true, then it really is.”

A second person stated: “They used to do nails by social security office in Fontana… I guess that wasn’t cutting it & stared scamming now.”

The two women were arrested and have since been released on bail.