In the Scam of the day for May 7 2024 I told you that Ravinkle Mathon was arraigned in a Maryland court accused of attempting to scam an elderly man out of $200,000 in an elaborate scam that has increased dramatically in the last year.  Police say that the scam began with a phone call from Mathon to an elderly man in which Mathon posed as a federal agent telling the targeted victim that his identity had been stolen and that he needed to protect his savings by withdrawing all of his funds, purchasing gold with the funds and then turn the gold over to the alleged scammer for safe keeping.  Fortunately, a family member of the targeted victim became aware of the scam and notified police who set up a sting and arrested Mathon when he came to collect the gold..

Scammers posing as government officials also perpetrate this scam by telling their targeted victims that their accounts have been hacked or are in danger of being hacked and that they need to liquidate their assets and purchase gold or some other precious metal in order to protect their assets.  The scammers then send a courier to collect the gold, purportedly for safe keeping on behalf of the targeted victim.  Once they have the gold, they disappear leaving the victim penniless.

More recently, also in Maryland, an 82 year old woman lost $900,000 to the same scam. In this instance, a pop up on the victim’s computer directed her to call a phone number where scammers posing as government agents told her that criminals had hacked into her computer and had access to her bank account and Social Security.  She was then directed to turn her savings into gold that would be collected and held for safe keeping by the scammers posing as federal agents.  In this case, police arrested a nineteen year old New Yorker, Zhenyong Weng and charged his with the crime.

TIPS

The primary thing to keep in mind in order to avoid this scam is to remember that no government agency or legitimate business will ever request that you purchase gold or other precious metals for any purpose and certainly not to protect them from criminals.

This scam increased to total losses last year of 55 million dollars and is getting worse.  In March a 64 year old woman lost $700,000 through this scam.  According to the FBI, many of the perpetrators of this crime are foreigners who have little difficult leaving the country with gold bars.

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