Elder Fraud in Rhode Island

Andrea Estell Cochran, a 51-year-old from Houston, was arrested and charged with federal bank fraud after using forged passports to impersonate account holders and withdraw approximately $11,000 from multiple banks across Washington state and Maine in 2024. She faces up to 30 years in federal prison plus additional state charges, with a plea deal hearing scheduled for August 28, 2025. A separate study by VPNPro found that seniors aged 60 and older across all U.S. states lost significant sums to fraud in 2022, with losses ranging from approximately $3 million to $31 million per state, highlighting the widesprea

Andrea Estell Cochran, a 51-year-old from Houston, was arrested and charged with federal bank fraud after using fake passports to impersonate account holders and withdraw approximately $11,000 from multiple Washington state banks in 2024, with similar attempts in Maine; she faces up to 30 years in prison and state charges across multiple Washington counties. Additionally, a VPNPro study reveals that seniors aged 60 and over across all U.S. states lost substantial sums to fraud in 2022, with per-victim losses ranging from $13,118 to $30,150 depending on the state, highlighting seniors as prime targets for scammers

This article covers multiple bank fraud cases prosecuted in 2025. Former Cathay Bank manager Weixin "Tony" Chen was indicted on charges of siphoning funds from customers' home equity lines and deposit accounts across Southern California branches, facing up to 30 years per count. The article also highlights the case of Jiaci Liu, a Chinese national sentenced to 24 months in federal prison for a sophisticated elder fraud scheme where he impersonated technical support and law enforcement to extract over $202,000 from elderly victims in Southern California and Arizona, including one victim who withdrew $28,000 after believing his computer was compromised.

Financial fraud in Oregon resulted in an estimated $201 million in reported losses and $1.2 billion in unreported losses in 2025, with the FBI and FTC reporting significant increases in fraud cases nationwide. The state's economy faces a projected $3.9 billion reduction in GDP, $2.6 billion reduction in personal income, and approximately 15,000 job losses due to all financial fraud (reported and unreported). Oregon ranks 26th-28th among states for cyber-enabled crime losses and elder fraud complaints, with fraud cases up 3,336 since 2022 and total losses up 285% since 2020.

New Yorkers lost over $540 million to fraud in 2024. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand introduced the Stop the Scammers Act to restore Consumer Financial Protection Bureau funding that was reduced by a Republican tax bill, and to authorize the CFPB to reward whistleblowers who report financial crimes and fraud targeting seniors.

The FBI Boston Division is warning New Englanders of an increasing surge in scam calls from fraudsters impersonating federal agents and law enforcement officials who use intimidation tactics—threatening arrest, property confiscation, or bank account freezes—to pressure victims into sending money via wire transfer, gift cards, cryptocurrency, or cash. According to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, 778 complaints were filed across Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, resulting in total losses of $12.9 million. The FBI emphasizes that legitimate law enforcement agencies do not call threatening arrest or demanding payment, and victims should hang up immediately, contact their financial institutions, and report the scam to local police

Recent CDC data indicates that approximately 1 in 10 Americans aged 60+ experience elder abuse annually. A comprehensive analysis of senior safety across U.S. states, measuring scam reports, homicide rates, violent death rates, and quality of life, ranked Massachusetts as the safest state for seniors (score: 89.96), followed by Minnesota (89.03) and Nebraska (88.78), with scam rates against seniors ranging from 95.5 to 141.1 reports per 100,000 people depending on the state.

A Boston truck repair company, Middlesex Truck and Coach, discovered that Chase Bank had fraudulently opened an account under its name without identification verification, which was then used by foreign scammers to collect proceeds from victims of "pig-butchering" schemes—elaborate investment scams that defraud victims of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The account was part of a sophisticated international money laundering operation linked to Asian crime syndicates that funnel stolen U.S. funds through fake bank accounts and cryptocurrency, with pig-butchering scams alone generating an estimated $44 billion annually across Southeast Asia and affecting millions of victims worldwide.

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on protecting older Americans from scammers, Senator Dick Durbin questioned witnesses about crypto ATM fraud, which resulted in nearly $247 million in losses to seniors in 2024, and introduced the Crypto ATM Fraud Prevention Act to combat the scams. Witnesses from AARP, USTelecom, and the National Elder Fraud Coordination Center confirmed that criminals are funneling elderly victims to crypto ATMs by convincing them they are saving themselves from legal prosecution, with crypto transactions now common in nearly all transnational elder fraud cases. Durbin also warned seniors to be skeptical of unsolicited phone calls claiming to be from government agencies and urged passage of

The U.S. Department of Justice announced reinvigorated efforts to combat transnational elder fraud schemes costing billions of dollars, with recent prosecutions targeting romance fraud, lottery fraud, tech support fraud, and grandparent scams. Key cases include Troy Murray, who sold a database of over seven million elderly Americans' personal information to Jamaican lottery fraudsters and laundered $1.6 million in proceeds, and Dennis Anderson and Frank Angelori, who brokered lead lists to Jamaica-based scammers from 2015-2020. Individual victims lost significant sums, with one Arizona victim losing over $400,000 to a lottery fraud scheme.

In recognition of World Elder Abuse Awareness Month, the U.S. Department of Justice announced reinvigorated efforts to prosecute transnational elder fraud schemes that cost American seniors billions of dollars. Recent prosecutions in the District of Rhode Island include: a British national convicted in a multi-state construction fraud targeting seniors across four states for over $1 million; eight individuals indicted for orchestrating transnational tech support scams that defrauded approximately 300 seniors across 37 states of over $5 million; and two residents charged with grandparent scams that defrauded seniors in Rhode Island and Massachusetts of at least $230,000. The DOJ urged seniors an

The U.S. Department of Justice announced a reinvigorated effort to combat transnational elder fraud schemes that cost billions of dollars annually, with several recent prosecutions targeting romance fraud, lottery fraud, tech support fraud, and grandparent scams. Key cases included Troy Murray, who pleaded guilty to selling a database of over 7 million elderly Americans' personal information to Jamaican lottery scammers, and his son Cutter Murray, who pleaded guilty to money laundering $1.6 million in fraudulent proceeds; other defendants were charged for operating Jamaica-based lottery fraud schemes that defrauded seniors across the country, with one victim losing over $400,

In 2024, Americans lost over $4.8 billion to financial scams across 147,127 reported complaints—a 46% increase in complaints and 43% increase in losses compared to 2023, according to FBI data released ahead of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. Massachusetts was particularly hard hit, with over 3,200 victims losing nearly $100 million, while the broader Boston Division reported $135 million in losses. Scammers exploit trust, loneliness, and fear by posing as romantic partners, tech support agents, government officials, or advisors, pressuring victims to send money through untraceable methods like wire transfers or gift cards.

Eight individuals with ties to China have been indicted for operating a transnational elder fraud scheme that victimized approximately 300 seniors across at least 37 states and Canada, with confirmed losses exceeding $5 million and suspected laundered funds totaling around $16 million. The scammers used fake pop-up messages impersonating technology companies and government agencies to trick elderly victims into transferring funds via wire transfers, cryptocurrency, or cash purchases of gold bars to accounts controlled by the fraudsters. Fangzheng Wang, a 24-year-old Chinese national in Massachusetts, was among the eight defendants arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and related offenses.

Eight individuals with ties to China, including 24-year-old Fangzheng Wang of Massachusetts, were indicted in a transnational elder fraud scheme that victimized approximately 300 people across at least 37 U.S. and Canadian states. The conspiracy used pop-up messages impersonating technology companies and government agencies (FTC, Federal Reserve) to convince seniors their financial accounts were compromised, then persuaded victims to transfer funds via wire, cryptocurrency, or cash to accounts controlled by the scammers, resulting in confirmed losses exceeding $5 million with an additional $16 million in suspected laundered funds identified. All eight defendants have been arrested and remain in federal custody