Authorities in two states say scammers posing as Federal Trade Commission agents have been pressuring elderly victims to liquidate their savings and convert the money into gold bars, which are then collected by couriers sent to their homes or to public meeting points.
In Laramie, Wyoming, police began investigating on Sept. 22 after an elderly woman handed over about $131,000 in gold to a courier. Scammers posing as FTC agents had convinced her that her money was at risk and pushed her to buy $460,000 worth of gold, according to the Laramie Boomerang.
A local coin shop owner grew suspicious and alerted police, who eventually arrested Jithin Sunny on a felony theft charge. The coin shop owner, police and the victim then worked together to set a trap. They borrowed enough one-ounce gold bars from another dealer to stage a photo of the woman’s purchase and arranged with her credit union to temporarily process a $500,000 transaction so it would look authentic.
On Oct. 2, the woman agreed to meet a courier at a Qdoba restaurant in Laramie to hand off the gold. She and the courier settled on a password, “tulip,” for the exchange. An undercover detective went to the meeting in her place.
Sunny, a Canadian citizen, told authorities he had been contacted on Instagram by a group offering a delivery job in the United States and believed he was delivering antiques to wealthy clients. After his arrest, he said he had simply been instructed to travel to Laramie, collect a package from someone and hand it off to a second courier.
The FBI has described schemes of this kind as a “sophisticated, multi-layer scam” that targets seniors.
A similar scheme in Marquette County
A nearly identical case surfaced in Marquette County, Wisconsin, according to the county sheriff’s office. A victim said a pop-up message appeared while using Facebook on a laptop, warning of a virus and providing a phone number to call.
When the victim called, a man answered and said the call was being transferred to the FTC’s fraud department. Scammers then told the victim that someone had tried to drain their savings account through a wire transfer, but that it had been blocked. To protect their assets, the victim was told to withdraw their savings, convert the money into gold bars, and wait at home for an “officer” to collect them.
The victim followed those instructions, buying gold bars, photographing them and bagging them for pickup. According to the sheriff’s office, the victim spent much of Oct. 20 on the phone with a man who identified himself only as “Sam.” When a sheriff’s deputy arrived at the victim’s home, “Sam” ordered the victim to hang up, say nothing to the deputy, and call back once the deputy had left.
Once the call resumed, “Sam” instructed the victim to carry the bag of gold outside and wait for a courier. Law enforcement intercepted the man who arrived to collect it, identified as Dhavalkumar Dashrathgiri Bava. He was taken into custody on a charge of felony conspiracy to commit theft of more than $100,000 by false representation, with an enhanced penalty applied because the victim was elderly.
Experts say the scam is run by organized groups
Tom Hyslip, a former Secret Service agent who now teaches cybercrime at the University of South Florida, told Fox News Digital that these operations are run by organized criminal gangs, many based in Africa.
“There’s been many indictments of arrests over the years for these types of scams. And they’ve been going around for years and the criminals keep changing their MO. It used to be the Nigerian Prince. And then it went to the investment scheme or someone’s been kidnapped,” Hyslip said.
“So now they’re trying to take their time, pretend they’re from a government agency or your bank, build that rapport, build the trust, then they make the ask.”
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