I believe I was involved in this scam. I've seen several similar stories about it now in articles and on Reddit, but wanted to post mine for awareness in case certain details help other victims.
I first received a call from "US Customs" a few weeks ago. An officer informed me that someone had been caught with a fake passport of mine in Shanghai Hongqiao Airport. She then told me to file a police report with Shanghai local police. I told her my Chinese is not very good and asked if they could file it for me. She went "on hold" to ask her legal department before returning and directly transferring me over. In my call history I could see both had caller ID as "US Customs" and the name of the Chinese police department respectively, so I believed it.
During this call I stumbled through filing the police report, where the man on the phone demanded I download and use Webex so he could formally conduct the interview process. For this he turned on video to show himself wearing a police uniform in front of a generic plain background. He flashed a police ID quickly. At the tail end of the process, after sending me a document of this police report, he ran my passport number through a "scan" before proclaiming it was linked to a Chinese bank account responsible for money laundering in connection with a man named "Wang Hai Tao." This man allegedly masterminded 200+ money laundering accounts and was extradited from the US back to China. I was aggressively warned the same would happen to me.
After being transferred to his Captain, "Captain Wang," I was told I could plead my case to remain under investigation while in the US. After a grueling several hours of this at this point, I was ready to do anything to just be allowed to continue living normally. Wang said he would agree under the circumstances that I obey these rules:
Sign a secrecy document and not tell anyone about the case
Be on Webex call 24 hours a day, leave my video on at home!
Report on my location and whereabouts
Report every 2 hours
These rules in themselves took a massive toll. I was constantly stressed going out with friends, worried about what would be overheard, and if I'd face consequences if the call disconnected due to bad signal.
Over the next few days, Wang sent me "tests" to "gather evidence" to clear my name. The first, he asked for 10 personal photos to show to this "Wang Hai Tao" who was currently in Chinese custody-- to my dread the day after he told me this mastermind had apparently identified me correctly out of hundreds of photos. I sent my handwriting and vocal recordings. I gave them photos of my IDs. I bought a new iPhone when instructed as I was told my personal phone was compromised. I listed out the names and amounts of all my financial accounts, and was told if I lied they'd know.
Interestingly enough, I was particularly rushed because coincidentally the next week I was travelling out of the country to go to the UK for a family event. The policemen informed me they would...