Cons seeking gold bars steal life savings from Americans in golden years

The con starts as a pop-up message or a letter from the federal government that carries a dire warning. It ends with unwitting victims delivering bundles of gold to international criminals.

Thieves are bilking millions of dollars from older Americans by posing as government officials and convincing them that their life savings are at risk. The only way to avoid more trouble is to liquidate their cash for gold and hand it over for safekeeping.

That is when contact with the supposed official goes dark.

“The harsh reality is, the vast majority of cases where people are a victim of a crime like this, they never get their money back,” said John Breyault, who oversees fraud trends for trade group National Consumers League.

Mr. Breyault said organized crime groups in Jamaica, West Africa and Southeast Asia are the primary culprits of the sophisticated schemes to defraud Americans.

Gold is an ideal haul for bandits because it’s nearly impossible to track once it has exchanged hands, Mr. Breyault said.

The FBI reported that Americans lost more than $55 million in various precious metal schemes from May to December last year.

Local police departments have issued warnings about the fraudsters and given people advice on protecting their savings.

Despite their best efforts, however, horror stories are mounting.

• An Oregon couple in their 70s paid a con artist nearly $280,000 in gold in June. Federal prosecutors charged Navjot Singh, 34, who came from India and was living in South Carolina, in the incident.

• In May, a man from Martin County, Florida, paid a scammer more than $260,000 in gold bars. Tejaskumar Patel, 21, of Chicago, was charged with the theft last month.

• A New Jersey woman in her 70s gave swindlers more than $100,000 in gold in February. Police charged Anil Mangukia and Yash Navdiya, who are Indian nationals and U.S. green card holders, in connection with the theft.

• A Colorado woman in her 70s handed over $120,000 worth of gold to scammers last year. Police charged Sagar Patel, 26, of New Jersey in February after connecting him to the theft.

• Prosecutors in Montgomery County, Maryland, said they charged Vipul Thakkar, 52, last week with swindling more than $1 million from a 74-year-old Bethesda man with memory loss issues.

Prosecutors said Mr. Thakkar was on his way to obtain an additional $240,000 in gold from the man when the Bethesda resident saw a story on local CBS affiliate WUSA about a woman losing $1 million to a precious metal scam. According to the station, the man called police out of concern that he, too, was being defrauded.

Police set up a sting to catch “Mike Rodgers,” who prosecutors say was Mr. Thakkar. He was arrested immediately after the next gold drop-off.

Mr. Thakkar was charged with multiple theft offenses related to the scheme. He has been jailed until his September court date.

Court documents said Mr. Thakkar admitted to receiving a 2% cut for acting as the courier. It wasn’t clear on whose behalf he was transporting the money, but prosecutors said he was working with people in India to carry out the fraud.

Maryland’s most populous jurisdiction has become a gold mine for scammers. Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said he has seen nearly two dozen reports of similar schemes this year.

One of them involved 19-year-old Zhenyong Weng of New York, who was accused last month of tricking a Silver Spring woman into giving him $900,000 in gold. Police said he claimed Russia was trying to take her money.

“People really need to be on guard. If you have an elderly loved one, talk to them about this, spread the word. That’s how we’re going to combat this problem,” FBI Supervisory Special Agent Keith Custer told Fox affiliate WTTG in March. “You really need to calm down, listen to what’s being told to you, take a breath and don’t act. Hang up the phone, talk to someone you trust.”

Some of the frauds are so elaborate that they can be hard to detect.

Ohio retiree Lori English told AARP that she was fooled by a caller ID of “Social Security Administration.” Three scammers posing as government officials said her identity had been stolen and cartels were using it to launder money and traffic drugs.

Ms. English, who is in her 50s, was informed she could be indicted in a criminal case and needed to empty her savings account, trade the money for gold and hand it over or risk having her funds frozen.

The victim said she first transferred half her life savings, which amounted to $250,000. Months later, the thieves pushed her to forfeit the rest.

The scammers told her she was in the clear afterward and that she just needed to fill out paperwork at her local police station. When confused authorities questioned her story, she started fearing the worst.

“I’m driving home, my phone rings and it’s a strange phone number, and there’s a strange male voice that says, ‘You’ve been scammed.’ So I scream, I hang up the phone and I call 911,” Ms. English said.

Two of the couriers were arrested in Oklahoma a week after she notified police. Officers found $240,000 in gold with her receipt attached.

The close call may have persuaded Ms. English to share her experience.

Mr. Breyault of the National Consumers League said many people don’t report fraud because they are ashamed of being conned. He said the FBI’s estimate of $55 million in theft is likely conservative.

The fraud expert said no one from the local or federal government would ever call to demand the purchase of gold. Those who get such a call should assume it is an attempted scam.

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly specified Lori English’s age.