Across the country, scammers posing as federal agents are sending couriers to collect gold from older adults. Some victims have lost substantial portions of their savings.
In Laramie, Wyoming, an elderly woman handed over about $131,000 in gold after people claiming to work for the Federal Trade Commission told her that her money was in danger. They had urged her to buy as much as $460,000 in gold. Police opened an investigation on Sept. 22.
A local coin shop owner became concerned that the woman was being targeted and contacted police. Authorities later arrested Jithin Sunny and charged him with felony theft.
Police, the shop owner and the woman worked together to set up a controlled handoff. They borrowed one-ounce gold bars from another dealer and staged a photo to make it appear she had bought them. Her credit union also temporarily processed a $500,000 transaction to help make the setup convincing.
On Oct. 2, the woman agreed to meet a courier at a Qdoba restaurant in Laramie. They had arranged to use “tulip” as a password. An undercover detective went to the meeting in her place.
Sunny, a Canadian citizen, told authorities he had been approached on Instagram about a delivery job in the United States. He said he believed he would be transporting antiques to wealthy clients. After his arrest, he said he had been told to travel to Laramie, collect a package and pass it to another courier.
The FBI describes this kind of scheme as a sophisticated, multistep scam aimed at older people.
A similar case was reported in Wisconsin. According to the Marquette County Sheriff’s Office, a woman using Facebook on her laptop saw a pop-up claiming her device had a virus. It included a phone number to call for help protecting her personal information.
A man who answered said he was transferring her to the Federal Trade Commission’s fraud department. The callers allegedly claimed someone had tried to empty her savings through a wire transfer, but that the transaction had been stopped.
The woman was then allegedly told to withdraw her savings, buy gold bars and wait for an officer to collect them at her home. She followed the instructions, photographed the gold and packed it for pickup.
The sheriff’s office said the woman spent much of Oct. 20 on the phone with a man who called himself “Sam.” When a deputy arrived at her home, she mentioned it to Sam. He allegedly told her to end the conversation with the deputy, say nothing and call him again after the deputy left.
After they resumed the call, Sam told her to take the bag of gold outside and wait for the courier. Authorities arrested the man who came to collect it, identified as Dhavalkumar Dashrathgiri Bava. He faces a felony conspiracy charge related to allegedly attempting to steal more than $100,000 through false representation. The charge includes an enhanced penalty because the victim was elderly.
Tom Hyslip, a former Secret Service agent and cybercrime professor at the University of South Florida, told Fox News Digital that organized criminal groups run these schemes. Many, he said, operate from Africa, and authorities have brought cases against people involved in similar scams over the years.
Hyslip said the tactics keep changing. Scammers once leaned on stories about Nigerian princes, investment opportunities or kidnappings. Now, he said, they may spend time pretending to represent a government agency or bank, building trust before asking victims to hand over money or valuables.
