By rssfeeds-admin 
A release from the department stated an 86-year-old Mountain Home woman was scammed when she received a message on her computer in late February, telling her to call Microsoft and giving her a phone number. When the woman called, she spoke with Wenyan Song, a Chinese national with a West Covina, California, address.
Song allegedly told the woman he was with Microsoft’s identity theft department. In a series of conversations, he convinced her that hackers were attempting to break into her computer and steal her money.
Song convinced the woman to empty her savings account and hand the money to a courier, who would place the money in a federal reserve bank, where it would be safe. The purported courier arrived at her home on March 17 and gave her the prepared password, and she handed him the $33,000 she had withdrawn.
Song, who used the name Jack, allegedly then convinced the woman over several phone calls to close out an investment account. She did so, handing the purported courier $38,000 in cash on May 16.
In June, a Baxter County sheriff’s investigator found out about a similar case in the Eureka Springs-Holiday Island area of Carroll County being investigated by the sheriff’s investigators there. A sting had been set up, and on May 22, a man had been arrested, the supposed courier coming to pick up the case.
Officials said investigators determined that the man was Song.
State investigators used cell phone data to determine that Song was also the one who picked up the money from the Baxter County woman. A bench warrant was issued on July 10 for Song, who was in DHS-ICE custody at the time, officials said.
Song was picked up from ICE custody in Little Rock on July 28 and is now in custody in Baxter County. He has a $75,000 case bond and a hold order by the Carroll County sheriff and ICE, with an Aug. 11 trial date.
Records show Song is facing a charge of felony theft of property.
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