Grad student accused of scamming woman to pay his tuition

PROVIDENCE, R.I. » A Brown University graduate student was charged Thursday with scamming a Florida woman out of $30,000 by telling her he wanted to open a school for poor children in Dubai.

Shishuai Li, a 25-year-old computer science student, instead used the money for tuition and living expenses, authorities said.

Li did not enter a plea during an appearance in Providence District Court on a felony state charge of obtaining money under false pretenses, according to court records. He was ordered held on $3,000 bail and made to surrender his passport. A court spokesman said Thursday no attorney had yet entered an appearance on Li’s behalf. Li did not immediately return an email seeking comment.

Police said Thursday that they believed Li was working with people in Nigeria, a haven for online scams targeting women.

“He, unfortunately, wouldn’t rat those people out to us,” Providence Police Captain Tim O’Hara said Thursday.

O’Hara said Li targeted women on the dating website Ourtime.com, which is aimed at people ages 50 and older.

“He was meeting people online, on a dating website, elderly woman, and schmoozing them, and convincing them that he was going to start a school for children in Dubai,” O’Hara said.

A partially redacted police report, first obtained by WPRI-TV and released by Providence Police to The Associated Press, said Homeland Security began investigating Li on Nov. 1, after Bank of America noticed his account had received around $181,000 in deposits from people around the U.S. Many of those people had been linked to large deposits into other accounts that were closed for bank fraud, the report said.