‘People are losing their life savings’: Seven Maryland residents lost $6.3 million in a gold bar scam targeting seniors. How to make sure this doesn’t happen to you
Have you gotten a call from a federal agent recently asking you to convert your gold bars into cash? If so, you may be a potential victim of a scam targeting seniors.
Here’s how the scam works: You receive a call or pop-up ad from a person posing as a federal agent. They claim that they’re working with the U.S. Department of Treasury to “safekeep” your assets because of identity theft, hacking, or some other reason like protecting it from Russia. They direct you to convert your money into gold bars and say the bars will be picked up by a courier who is an “FBI Agent.”
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As of Aug. 9, Maryland’s Montgomery County Police have identified seven victims who have collectively lost $6.3 million in gold bars, according to FOX 5 DC.
This month the Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office said it believes the total number of victims is close to 20, calling it “organized crime at the highest level” with links to India and China. A few arrests have been made this year, including one earlier this month.
“People are losing their life savings, their homes, their trust, their security,” FOX 5 DC reports FBI Special Agent-in-Charge Bill DelBagno saying. “Unfortunately, it’s happening across the United States, and it’s happening here in Maryland.”
Asking for gold is advantageous to scammers since, as AARP noted, “it’s easy to transport across borders and is virtually untraceable when criminals eventually sell it to jewelers and other buyers who end up melting it down.”
"What we're seeing is that we do have suspects that are coming from other countries, and they are able to take these gold bars out of the country. They are able to go through TSA with these gold bars," said Shiera Goff of the Montgomery County Police Department to FOX DC in May.
Fraud is endemic across the U.S., but seniors are a favorite target of scammers. The FBI’s 2023 Elder Fraud Report says that people over 60 reported more than $3.4 billion in losses to cyber scams last year — an 11% hike since 2022.
Here’s how you can protect yourself.
Double check with a friend
When one of the scammers targeted a Maryland man in his early 90s, he avoided losing $200,000 by doing one thing: talking to his friends.
The friends immediately recognized the gold bar conversion as a con, and reported it to the police. They saved the man from losing his life savings, according to FOX 5 DC.
Any time you receive a phone call, email or ad that sounds too good to be true or very scary, and asks you to perform actions related to money, tell your friends and family and get their input. Scammers often prey on your emotions to get you to hand over money to a complete stranger. A friend can be more objective than you and help you sniff out anything strange.
Look it up
A 74-year-old Bethesda man made nine trips to a Maryland gold store to convert a million dollars into gold bars. Luckily, he had seen the news recently and recognized that he was involved in a scam. He contacted the authorities and kept his million dollars, FOX 5 DC reports.
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If you receive a call out of the blue from a stranger, look up what they’re saying to you on Google. You may have missed a news segment about a similar scam.
It’s always good to double-check the facts when a stranger rings you up — especially if it’s about your money. Feel free to look things up and ask them questions. Don’t believe the callers are who they claim to be, and check if the government agencies or law enforcement agencies they claim to represent ever contact people in such a manner.
Don’t engage with unknown people
The Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office put out an advisory to Maryland residents to ignore calls from unknown numbers and avoid clicking on pop-up ads online.
It may seem harmless to pick up a call from an unknown number, but scammers can use a one-on-one conversation to get into your head. In this case, the scammers pretend to be federal agents in order to prey on your fear and desire to be a good citizen.
If you’re worried about missing an important call from an unknown, but legitimate, phone number (e.g. a health care provider), you don’t need to worry. If the call is truly important, the caller will leave a message and you can call them back.
Avoid clicking on pop-up ads or links in emails from unknown senders. Those are easy ways for scammers to reel you in, as well as hack into your computer and extract important information, such as banking details.
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This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
