Chances are good that if you live or work in New York City, you've received a robocall in Mandarin.
"I get them also," said Officer Donald McCaffrey of the Queens Grand Larceny Division. "I have an NYPD department cell phone and I get them on the cell phones also. It is out of control."
McCaffrey is investigating the phone calls. He said the scam first came to his attention in December, when a 65-year old Chinese woman complained to the NYPD that she had lost $1.3 million.
"She called to report that someone from the Chinese consulate called and said she needs to call the Beijing Police Department," said McCaffrey, "because she's being investigated for financial crimes over in China."
The robocall messages are usually a variation on the same theme: this is the Chinese consulate, we have an important document that needs to be picked up, it may affect your status in the U.S., press a button to speak with a specialist.
Most non-Mandarin speakers just hang up. But Chinese immigrants sometimes engage with the robocall. One reason is the number that appears on phones is sometimes the number for the Chinese consulate in New York, giving the calls a semblance of credibility. This is known as "spoofing" and is a common and illegal tactic. Similar robocalls have also hit Vancouver, Los Angeles, Australia, and New Zealand.
Then, according to the NYPD and a security expert in Hong Kong — where this scam has existed for over three years — the phone call is connected to someone in mainland China.
Once the scammers get a Chinese speaker on the line, they often carry out what's known as a "parcel scam." That's where the caller pretends to be from a courier company and claims that a parcel addressed to the victim is connected to a criminal case. The phone call is then transferred to a supposed police officer who closes the con by telling the victim it's a money laundering issue and if they transfer money to a Hong Kong bank account, police will investigate and resolve the case.
"You wouldn't expect, it but people do fall for that sort of thing," said Ben Yates. He's a lawyer based in Hong Kong specializing in cyber-security and cryptocurrencies at the international law firm RPC.
"The reason it works is people from mainland China, who are using shopping platforms from China, are vulnerable to those type of accusations that there's something wrong with what you're doing, you're not entitled to make that type of transaction," Yates said. "It plays on people's fears...We’ve really seen this problem growing and growing here in Hong Kong."
In New York, the NYPD has received 30 complaints from people ages 21 to 65 that said they've lost money to this scam. Officer McCaffrey estimates $3 million has been stolen since December.
New York City Council member Peter Koo, who represents part of Queens, suspects the number is far greater than 30 people.
"Some people come to our office to they say they've been scammed and they don't know what to do," he said. "We say: 'contact law enforcement law agencies.' But most of them say 'we don't know English.' They don't know how to report it."
People receiving these calls should report them to the Federal Trade Commission.
Yates said while the scammers are most likely operating out of mainland China, the money is often sent to Hong Kong, where it's easier to open an account and raises less suspicion from authorities because of the high volume of international transactions there.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, is a special administrative region of China but has its own legal system that operates independently of Beijing.
Yates said Chinese people living abroad have legitimate worries about the government monitoring their activities.
"If you're based overseas and you're from mainland China, then you may be concerned about the authorities questioning what you're doing," he said. "Whether it involves transferring money out of China or other aspects of your activities, it could be all kinds of things the authorities could have an interest in...the political and legal system that operates in mainland China (is) quite different to what you're used to in the U.S."
The Chinese consulate is aware of the scam and has posted a warning. The Federal Trade Commission, which helps consumers and law enforcement collect information on illegal phone calls, is also aware and has posted its own warnings.
In addition to the mystery of who or what is behind these calls, experts are puzzled at how these scammers collect phone numbers.
It's unclear "whether it's autogenerated, whether they're getting it from a lead list, whether they're getting it from the internet," said Patti Poss, an attorney with the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "But we do know with automated dialers you can put a lot of numbers through very quickly."
Poss says the one sure-fire way to avoid being a victim of this scam: just hang up.