Chinatown business owners targeted in extortion plot

A Mandarin-speaking extortionist has been threatening Chinatown business owners in what police are calling a "phone-phishing" scam.

In the last nine days, at least 19 operators of businesses in Chinatown have received threats against their families if they didn't come up with $10,000 to $20,000, a police official said.

Yesterday, more than 30 business owners, Town Watch volunteers and others from Chinatown met with officers from the 6th Police District and the major-crimes and criminal-intelligence units, who are jointly investigating the scam.

Community leaders credited Capt. Brian Korn, of the 6th District, headquartered at 11th and Winter streets, with alerting the Chinatown Town Watch within 24 hours of the first call - on April 27 - to warn them of the scam.

The caller appears to be "a more mature male, maybe in his 40s," said Capt. Dennis Cullen, of the criminal-intelligence unit.

The caller speaks Mandarin with a Fujianese dialect and may be calling from New York, Korn said. But there's been "no violence, no vandalism."

"He says, 'I know where you live, I'm going to take action against your kid,' " said Steven Zhu, a coordinator of Chinatown Town Watch.

Last Thursday, however, the extortionist met his match when he called C.I.G. Asia Ltd., an insurance broker on 11th Street near Race.

The caller "confused the office manager for me," said Ken Wong, owner of C.I.G. He asked for "Miss Ken Wong," and then told a sob story.

"He said he had family in Philadelphia, and they needed help . . . $10,000," Wong said.

"My office manager is a pretty sharp cookie," said Wong, who identified the employee as Deanna Hang. "She said, 'Who are you? How did you get our number?' "

Wong said the caller replied: "Can you help? You're Chinese."

"Who are you calling?" the office manager demanded, according to Wong. As soon as the caller hung up, Hang notified police.

"A few years ago, we might not have heard about [the scam] until weeks later," Korn said.

In fact, there's been a dramatic turnaround in the once-insulated Chinese community as a result of outreach by the 6th District, Chinatown leaders said.

Nineteen of the estimated 23 businessmen that were threatened reported the threats to police shortly after the calls were made. The last threat was made on Monday.

When he first noted a pattern to the calls, Korn notified Joe Eastman, also a coordinator of the Chinatown Town Watch, who sent out a police alert by e-mail and warned others by phone on April 28.

And the captain called on a former 6th District officer, Catharine Fan, an American-born Chinese woman who speaks Mandarin, to interpret for him in the probe.

"It looks like [the caller] is going down a Chinatown directory," Korn said. "On Monday, it seemed like all the calls were from Arch Street. On the second day, they came from 9th Street."

The scammer targeted owners of restaurants, dental offices, insurance agencies, building-supply businesses and wholesalers.

"The detectives told us 'Don't send any money to the harasser,' " Zhu said.

"And hit star-57 before calling 9-1-1," he added. "That will save the caller's number for 24 hours. Then we can find out who called."

"People are feeling much more comfortable," Zhu said.

The so-called "phone phishing" scam also has been carried out in Boston, New York and Los Angeles, police said. *