South Bay man faces multiple felony counts in ‘sweetheart scams’
A South Bay man was arraigned Tuesday in San Jose on 15 felony counts of grand theft and passing bad checks after scamming women out of more than $200,000, according to prosecutors.
Joel Huynh, 41, became an expert at meeting women on Vietnamese dating websites and Facebook, eventually meeting them in person and presenting himself as a “well-to-do, affable and especially generous” man, according to Georg Behrens, a Santa Clara County deputy district attorney.
“He would give these women personal checks as a pretext to show his generosity,” Behrens said. “He talked about helping the women financially.” Seven victims have been identified.
Huynh would tell some of the victims the checks would help with school expenses. He would then have them deposit the check in their own bank account.
Sometimes, Huynh wouldn’t wait to ask for some cash in return.
“Sometimes it would happen almost right away,” Behrens said. “They would go to the bank together where she would deposit the check and on their way out, he would get a call on his cellphone about a family medical or financial emergency and he would tell them that he needed cash right away.”
Huynh did not enter a plea during his arraignment Tuesday. He will reappear in court July 21, Behrens said.
Twitter: @alexiafedz
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