One day in late February, a woman living in Silver Spring’s Leisure World community received a call from someone claiming to be from the Federal Trade Commission’s Office of the Inspector General. She was told that her identity had been stolen, and she should transfer her money into gold bars so that they could be turned over to FBI agents who would put them into the U.S. Department of Treasury.
She complied and handed off the gold bars to a courier who drove to pick them up. After doing this twice, she realized the truth: She was being scammed and was never going to get the almost $800,000 she gave them back.
She was not the only victim of a scheme like this over the past year, and Montgomery County police are now providing tips to residents on how to protect their money.
Montgomery County police Detective Sean Petty, who is part of the department’s Financial Crimes Division, has been outspoken about the importance of people protecting themselves from fraud schemes.
“The key here is prevention because scamming is never going to stop,” Petty said. “We can definitely make it harder for the scammers by not indulging them and sending them gold.”
Thousands of people in the county are impacted by financial fraud schemes, losing a total of tens of millions of dollars each year, and these numbers have increased over the last couple of years, according to Petty.
Petty said the county does not have exact numbers because people report financial fraud to a variety of different places, including the police, banks and the postal service.
He said that with gold bar scams, there have been around a dozen victims in the county in the past year who lost more than $5 million total.
There has only been one case in the county that resulted in an arrest: the gold bar scam involving the victim who received a call in late February. On March 20, Wenhui Sun, 34, of California had his bond hearing ay the District Court in Rockville in connection with his alleged involvement in a scheme to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars in gold bars from the Leisure World resident. He was allegedly the courier who picked up the bars from the victim.
If convicted, Sun faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and/or a fine of $25,000, the judge said in court.
Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy said that scammers are now asking for gold bars instead of just cash because the bars are “impossible to track” and have a “universal value” across countries with different currencies.
“If you’re a member of the senior community, there are people out there posing as government agents, trying to make you think that you might be in trouble or that you’ve been scammed,” McCarthy said after the bond hearing. “Please be on the lookout for anybody who’s asking you about precious metals and jewelry.”
Petty has talked on the police department’s social media account about how important it is for county residents to protect themselves, yet people are still falling victim to fraud schemes.
“We’re still getting these cases weekly, even since the story broke of this arrest,” Petty said. “We’re still getting individuals who are handing over gold or handing over cash to couriers in the county even after we’ve made this desperate plea to save your money and stop because it’s a scam.”
These scams are not limited to Montgomery County. The FBI released a public service announcement in January warning people, especially senior citizens, to be aware of scammers who may ask them to liquate their assets into cash or gold and then send a courier to pick up the money or precious metals.
From May to December, the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center saw an increase in these types of scams, with total losses of more than $55 million in the U.S.
The FBI said it’s important for people to know that the U.S. government “and legitimate businesses will never request you purchase gold or other precious metals.”
Petty also provided some tips for people to protect themselves from falling victim to these schemes. He said that people should check in on older family members and friends regularly, asking them if they have received any strange calls, if they’re having any trouble paying their bills or have any financial issues.
He also told people to not feel obligated to stay on the phone with someone, especially if it may seem like a scam.
“If you get a call, be willing to say no, you’re not interested,” Petty said. “You should not feel pressured into completing those transactions that you don’t want to complete.”