New York Warns $100 Million Gold-Bar Scam Targets Older Adults
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Aug 8
New York Warns $100 Million Gold-Bar Scam Targets Older Adults
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Aug 8
Summary
$100 million has been stolen from mostly older adults in New York over the past two years through a gold-bar scam, Attorney General Letitia James said Friday.
Fake pop-ups or emails claiming a computer or bank account is compromised push victims to call scammers, grant remote computer access, and expose financial information.
Posing as law enforcement, the scammers then tell victims to withdraw funds, buy gold bars or coins, stay silent, and hand the metal to couriers sent to collect it.
James urged people not to call numbers in unsolicited messages, not to give strangers remote access, and to contact their bank or law enforcement if an account problem is claimed.
The scheme has also surfaced in Hawaii, Maine, Washington, D.C., and Wisconsin; in July, a D.C. gold dealer helped stop a planned $200,000 loss by alerting police.