‘They create a sense of urgency. Most people hang up or don’t answer, but one out of a thousand people believes them,’ one police detective said.
SHOW LOW, Ariz.—The coin shop owner had seen his share of hefty deals, but this call caught him off guard. An elderly man from nearby Snowflake, Arizona, wanted to purchase gold coins valued in the tens of thousands.
The next day, when the man walked into the shop in Show Low, his nervousness was obvious. The man was clutching his phone, hanging onto every word from a woman’s voice that seemed to be directing him.
“Before we sat down and talked about price or product or anything, he had a $180,000 cashier’s check already made out,” the shop owner, who requested to remain anonymous, told The Epoch Times. “I thought it was kind of strange.”
The man stumbled over basic questions, anxious to speed through the sale.
The shop owner’s unease grew—was this elderly customer being manipulated by a scammer?
Taking care not to alert the woman on the line, he discreetly slipped the man a note asking if he needed help. Certain now that something was amiss, he reached out to the police.
The FBI and other agencies quickly took on the case. Two weeks later, they arrested a suspect and uncovered a complex scheme that had already stolen $100,000 in gold coins from the 79-year-old man.
This was far from an isolated case. Since May 2023, the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center has reported a surge in these scams. In September, an FBI warning estimated that losses from the scams now total more than $186 million.
Known as the “Gold Bar” government impersonation scam, the scheme draws in unsuspecting elderly, retirement age, and vulnerable people.
The scam often begins with people pretending to be U.S. government workers or law enforcement officers, according to the Ohio Department of Commerce. In January, local media said an 89-year-old woman from Sylvania, Ohio, lost more than $1 million in a similar scheme.
A letter in the mail, an email, or a phone call informs the victim their identity has been stolen and their bank or investment accounts are in danger.
Then, the victim may be told they can protect their money for a short time if they act fast.
The scammers then convince the person to buy gold, silver, or other valuable metals and arrange for a courier to pick them up, claiming it will keep them safe from theft.
Scammers warn victims not to talk to their bank or anyone else about what is happening and threaten them with legal trouble if they do.
A single scheme might utilize several scammers to manipulate a victim; each playing a different role, such as an employee at a tech company, a bank representative, or a government worker.
In some cases, such as that involving the man from Snowflake, victims may be asked for funds to avoid criminal charges or prove good faith.
“Basically, this is a very common scam,” as cunning as it is cruel, Snowflake-Taylor Police Detective Amity Toth, a lead investigator in the case, told The Epoch Times.
Toth said victims often go along with the scam out of fear of arrest on a false accusation or because they lack knowledge of the law.
