North Reading police have arrested a man on suspicion of defrauding an elderly woman

A resident of New York was arrested in connection with fraud on an elderly resident of North Reading.

Xueqiang Wu, 30, was arrested after allegedly stealing thousands of dollars from an elderly resident.

According to North Reading police, officers were contacted this week by an elderly resident who believed they had been scammed by people online.

Investigators determined that a sophisticated online fraudster illegally gained remote access to the resident’s computer and that they were able to successfully use a series of threats and intimidation to steal over $10,000 from the victim through digital Bitcoin transactions.

After receiving a report of this theft, North Reading Police discovered that the scammer attempted to steal additional money from the victim, this time telling the victim that federal agents would be coming to their home address to collect the remaining money.

North Reading police arrested Wu on Thursday, November 14 when he arrived at the victim’s residence and identified himself as a federal agent trying to get money from the victim.

Wu is charged with a number of theft charges.

“Such arrests in law enforcement agencies are not a common phenomenon. These scammers are experts at targeting the elderly and use threats and intimidation through technology to make them victims and often prevent them from notifying the police in time to act. In this case, we were able to successfully shut down a crook who decided to target our residents and that led to the successful arrest of Wu,” said Chief Zimmerman.

Wu was arraigned Friday in Woburn District Court.

This is an evolving story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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