Ying Xing was so confident that PCI Data could get him 100 percent annual returns by trading in Asian currency markets that he invested more than $300,000. The fact that PCI’s management was Chinese, as is Xing, only bolstered his trust in the City of Industry firm.

Now Xing is $210,000 poorer and PCI has been shut down by the California Department of Corporations, which suspects fraud.

Xing’s plight is little different from that of investors who poured more than $2 million into a Southern California online casino company, which promised big returns by bringing gambling to the Internet. There was just one problem, according to investigators: Besides its site on the World Wide Web, the company did not exist.

Los Angeles has long borne the dubious distinction of being the fraud capital of America. But now, thanks to the region’s embrace of new technologies and a large number of recent immigrants na & #271;ve about business practices in their new home, L.A. is extending its lead on the cutting edge of white-collar crime.

“There is absolutely no doubt that based on type, sophistication and size, Los Angeles remains the fraud capital of the U.S., if not the world,” said Thomas Parker, chairman and chief executive of the Emerald Group, a security management firm in Westlake Village, and former chief of the FBI’s white-collar crime division in Los Angeles. “Los Angeles is ahead of national economic trends and the people here have an attitude that within limitations, anything goes.”

Adding to the problem is that local law enforcement authorities can only divert a small portion of their resources to combating white-collar crime.

“If you steal $2,000 with a gun, you are likely to have a SWAT team all over you,” said Henry Kupperman, director of West Coast operations for Investigative Group International, a security consulting firm. “But if you embezzle $200,000, you likely won’t get detected.”

Fraud flourishes in industries that are changing so rapidly that regulators are unable to keep pace. Internet fraud, in particular, is becoming one of the greatest worries.

“The more we rely on computers, the more they will become the crime of the future. It is very easy to commit computer crimes, and we do not have a lot of control in that area yet,” said Ralph Plummer, a deputy in the L.A. District Attorney’s major fraud division.

While the Internet is being used to commit types of fraud that have been around for years such as fixed auctions, bogus investment schemes and the stealing of financial information the vast reach of cyberspace makes detecting and prosecuting criminals that much harder.

“My mandate ends at the state line, but the Internet is global,” said Bill McDonald, assistant commissioner for enforcement at the state Department of Corporations.

Case in point is Kevin Merritt, a former L.A. resident who is wanted for allegedly selling bogus real estate to investors. While the property he’s selling is in the United States, Merritt is believed to be running his operation via the Internet from Ecuador.

Fast-growing high-tech firms, often run by executives who are better at developing software than balancing a corporate account, have been a favorite target of scammers. Due to often-sloppy due diligence, a popular ploy is to buy products from these companies using bogus lines of credit.

Elaine Carey, Kroll Associates’ managing director for Southern California, said the rapid interchange of key employees between local high-tech companies also is a growing concern.

“In the last few months we have seen a number of cases in which an employee at a high-tech company has already set up their own competing company,” Carey said. In some cases, the employee’s “moonlighting” company is in direct competition with his or her current employer only operating with the advantage of using stolen, insider information.

Perhaps the biggest potential for massive fraud involves L.A.’s immigrant community. Eager to secure a piece of the American dream and willing to give their confidence to anyone who speaks their own language, Asian immigrants are especially easy targets.

The latest fad involves schemes that promise investors high returns through investment in foreign currency markets.

“We are seeing a surge in scams involving foreign currencies and metals,” said McDonald. “Their ability to target specific ethnic groups has improved.”

In June, the Department of Corporations shut down 13 such operations, mostly in the Chinese-American communities of the San Gabriel Valley. The problem is that unless the ringleaders are convicted of a crime extremely difficult considering the international nature of their dealings the scammers simply may wait a few months before setting up a similar operation under a new name.

McDonald said the recent turmoil in the Asian financial markets has only encouraged such activity. Asian investors who lost their savings in overseas stock markets have been willing to take desperate gambles to recoup their losses. At the same time, the market volatility overseas makes it easier for scam artists to explain to investors that their money has been lost.

Latino immigrant communities, meanwhile, are being increasingly targeted by bogus attorneys promising green cards and other residency documents often for thousands of dollars. Instead, after paying a large up-front fee, the victims never hear from their so-called lawyers again.

The fact that many of the victims are new immigrants, some of them here illegally, makes it harder to crack down on such scams.

“They are victims that would be reluctant to file a report,” said Tom Papageorge, head deputy district attorney in the consumer protection division.

To combat such crime, the D.A.’s Office, in conjunction with the Immigration and Naturalization Service, is in the process of forming a new agency, the Los Angeles Immigration Fraud Task Force.

Meanwhile, advances in technology are making traditional forms of fraud even more virulent.

Bank fraud, in particular, has been boosted by the advent of computers, and as a result is taking more time and resources of law enforcement than any other white-collar crime.

Computer scanners and laser printers are giving crooks the ability to create bogus checks that are almost impossible to detect at least until you try to cash them.

ATM and debit cards are also popular targets, with criminals developing software that can steal bank-account numbers and secret codes as customers innocently purchase groceries or a tank of gas.

Just as Los Angeles is the bank robbery capital of America, it is also the leader in bank fraud. Law enforcement officials say the large number of bank branches in the city, combined with a transient population that likes to use ATM and debit cards, makes L.A. an attractive arena for such fraud.

According to the FBI, the L.A. area accounts for between 20 percent and 25 percent of the nation’s bank-related fraud cases and 33 percent of mortgage fraud nationwide.

Health care and insurance fraud are other popular forms of white-collar crime in the L.A. area. The combination of a large number of health care providers that are headquartered in the region, a high number of automobile-related accidents on L.A. streets, and the area’s notoriously litigious nature all create fertile ground for fraud.

“Because health care is so complex and involves so much money it is relatively easy to exploit loopholes in the system,” said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in downtown L.A.

For that reason, the U.S. Attorney recently set up a health care task force to combat such schemes as overcharging insurance companies and faking medical conditions to make false insurance claims.