Woman pleads guilty in tech support scam that targeted older victims

By Stephanie Fournier

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    MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (WMUR) — A woman from Massachusetts has been sentenced after pleading guilty to her role in a tech support scam, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office said.

Rachel Chen, 26, was arrested in March 2014 by the Allenstown Police Department. Prosecutors said at the time of her arrest, Chen was trying to pick up $22,000 in cash from an older victim. They said Chen’s co-conspirators told the victim he had a virus on his computer, his financial accounts were compromised, and he needed to pay to protect them.

An investigation revealed that Chen and her co-conspirators used the tech support scam to get money from two other victims, totaling $40,000.

Chen pleaded guilty on Wednesday to two felony counts of conspiracy to commit theft by deception and one felony count of theft by deception. On one conspiracy count, the Attorney General’s Office said Chen was sentenced to 2-6 years in New Hampshire State Prison. On the other charges, her sentence was suspended for 10 years following her release from prison.

Chen is now prohibited from working in any capacity with elderly, disabled or impaired adults and serving as a fiduciary for any person, the AG’s office said.

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