Detectives are looking for victims of a Vietnamese con artist who has been posing as an employee of DSHS to gain the trust of her victims.

Detectives said that 39-year-old Oanh Nguyen of White Center would contact her victims in the DSHS office in the 9600 block of 15 Ave SW. Nguyen would pose as a DSHS employee and approach Vietnamese-speaking clients and ask if they needed help completing forms.

During her contact with the clients, she would tell them she needed help depositing a check because she did not have a bank account.   Nguyen would ask the client to deposit a check into their bank account and give her the cash.

At least six agreed to help Nguyen and deposited her checks, giving her cash from their accounts.   In each of the cases, her checks later bounced because the accounts were closed.

Detectives said Nguyen is also suspected of fraudulently accepting mortgage payments from Vietnamese-speaking clients when she worked as an unlicensed mortgage broker.  Detectives said that from 2009-2010, Nguyen reportedly accepted mortgage payments from Vietnamese clients and never passed the payments on to the lender.   One victim in particular was unaware that Nguyen was not making the payments until his house was in the process of foreclosure.

Detectives said the common denominator in these cases appears to be that the victims speak Vietnamese and little or no English.  Detectives add that Nguyen also frequents the Rainier DSHS Office at 3600 Graham St. in Seattle.

On June 13, Nguyen was arrested and booked into the King County Jail for investigation of fraud, ID theft, forgery, and unlawful issuance of bank checks.

If you think you may have been the victim of Nguyen’s scam, please call King County Community Service Officer Peter Truong at 206-423-2932, 206-296-3323, or the Burien Precinct at 206-296-3333.