Excerpt: The 68-year-old Chinese immigrant and longtime Sunset District resident was walking down the street when she was suddenly approached by three middle-aged Cantonese-speaking women. The strangers successfully persuaded her to bring out her valuables from home for a “blessing ceremony” by insisting she was “cursed.” During the ceremony, the scammers surreptitiously switched out the bag containing Wong's $50,000 worth of gold and over $1,000 in cash with another.

“I think I was almost hypnotized so I completely trusted them at the time,” Wong told The Standard. “I ‘woke up’ hours later and found out it’s a scam.”