Quincy Man Charged In Pennsylvania Phone Scam

MILTON, MA — A Quincy man turned himself into Pennsylvania State Police on Friday on felony charges related to a deception scam based out of Milton. Pennsylvania State Police said Liang Ma, 37, is charged with theft by deception and attempted theft by deception after he convinced a Frankstown Township man to send him $8,000 he said he needed to get the man's grandson out of jail.

Pennsylvania State Police said Ma identified himself as an attorney and that the man's grandson was in jail. Police said the man was told to send $4,000 to a bail bondsman in Milton. The man sent the money via UPS. Police said Ma made a similar request that resulted in an additional $4,000 before the Frankstown Township man learned his grandson was, in fact, not in jail.

After a third request for money — this time $9,000 — the Frankstown Township man contacted Pennsylvania State Police. Milton police made the arrest after police said he arrived to claim an empty parcel Pennsylvania State Police arranged to have sent from Frankstown Township.

Pennsylvania State Police said a search of Ma's car discovered $4,000 made up of the same denominations that the Frankstown Township man sent in the original payments.

Ma was released on an unsecured $10,000 bond and will be arraigned in Pennsylvania on Feb. 21.

Milton police recently warned of a similar scam in the town involving scammers posing as law enforcement asking for money to secure the release of relatives.

Milton police said that elaborate Bitcoin scam involved solicitors using phone number cloning and law enforcement impersonation to make it appear that local police departments are validating their identity and claims. A Milton resident fell victim to that scam, believed to have originated out of India or Pakistan, in November when scammers transferred the call to someone pretending to be a member of the Milton Police Department using an actual current officer's name.

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