By District Attorney Summer Stephan
Now that buying gold bars has come back into popularity with retailers such as Costco making the purchase easy, those of us in law enforcement are seeing a disturbing trend in which scammers, who are pretending to be government officials, bank representatives or computer technology support experts, are telling victims to buy gold, silver, or other precious metals to protect their funds.
The financially devastating scam, as with many similar schemes, begins with a computer pop-up window telling the user that their computer has been hacked or that a virus has been detected on their device. There are many iterations of how this scam plays out, such as bad actors saying they are from the Social Security Administration, a banking institution or a tech support employee. The outcome, however, does not vary. It ends with a victim, typically a senior citizen, being defrauded of their financial wealth and dignity.
The most common method is when a scammer fools a victim into thinking their computer has a virus or has been hacked and that the victim needs to allow “Microsoft” or some other company remote access the victim’s computer to protect them.
Our San Diego Elder Justice Task Force, made up of local and federal law enforcement partners, works collaboratively to hold these perpetrators accountable in state and federal prosecutions. One recent case involved a Carlsbad victim who reported to police that she was involved in a months-long scam by fraudsters posing as government, bank and tech-support employees.
Eventually, when the bad actors realized how much the victim had in savings, they convinced her she could safeguard her funds by obtaining gold bars and sending them to the U.S. Treasury, which would create a locker under her name. Over the course of two months, the victim sent more than $1 million via wire transfers to a precious metal business located in San Marcos. She was told to give the precious metal, which was mostly gold, to an individual under the false pretense that it was being secured for safekeeping. She was actually giving her life savings to a criminal network.
Government officials and legitimate businesses will never request you purchase gold or other precious metals.
These tips could help prevent a scam from happening:
Never allow anyone to install remote access software on your computer or to download apps on your phone.
Never disclose your home address or agree to meet with unknown individuals to deliver cash or precious metals.
Do not click on unsolicited pop-ups on your computer, links sent via text messages, or email links and attachments.
Do not contact unknown telephone numbers provided in popups, texts, or emails.
Do not allow unknown individuals access to your computer.
If anyone asks you to pay for something or to secure your money by wiring money, using crypto currency, Bitcoin, gift cards or to pay large sums of cash or buy gold, end contact with that person immediately.
You are being scammed.
Immediately talk to someone you trust.
Never believe anyone who tells you that you will get into trouble if you tell someone else about a situation that involves your money or financial accounts.
If you suspect that you have been the victim of fraud, report it or any suspicious activities to the FBI IC3 at www.ic3.gov as quickly as possible and also report this to your local police agency.
Be sure to include as much transaction information as possible including:
The name of the person or company that contacted you.
Methods of communication used, including websites, emails, and telephone numbers.
Any bank account number to which you wired funds and the recipient’s name.
The name and location of the metal dealer company and the account to which you wired funds, if you were instructed to buy precious metals.
If you have been the victim of elder abuse, call (800) 339-4661.
