A Massachusetts woman is being criminally charged in New Hampshire

A Massachusetts woman is being criminally charged in New Hampshire for perpetrating tech support scams that targeted elderly persons, including one victim in Littleton, who was bilked out of $20,000. On Monday, the office of the New Hampshire Attorney General announced that Rachel Chen, 25, of North Andover, was indicted by grand juries in several counties. On June 21 Chen was charged with a Class A felony count of conspiracy to commit theft by deception.

The indictment accuses Chen of conspiring with one or more persons to target a victim identified as “E.B.” in Littleton. According to the state’s case, an unknown co-conspirator sent E.B. an electronic message purportedly from “Apple support” and told E.B. that her financial account had been hacked and that $20,000 had been stolen from her financial account. The co-conspirator told E.B. to travel to a “federal ATM” in Littleton and instructed E.B. on how to deposit funds into a crypto-currency ATM and told E.B. to put $20,000 in cash in a package and to tape up the package. The co-conspirator then sent Chen an electronic message, which included E.B.’s address. “Ms. Chen traveled to E.B.’s home and provided a fake name and password to E.B.; and Ms. Chen took possession of the package containing $20,000 in U.S. Currency, which was the property of E.B.  Chen is scheduled to be arraigned at Grafton Superior Court on July 22.

She faces a maximum state prison sentence of 7 ½ to 15 years if convicted.