In the US, more than $3.4 billion was scammed from people over the age of 60 in 2024 alone. Keep an eye on your elderly folk's cash, otherwise, someone else will.
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An elderly couple in Naples fell for a scam that wouldn't even get the time of day from a younger person. The scammer called them up, claiming to be the police. They insisted that they had a warrant out for their arrest, and the only way to get out of it was to buy gold and give it to them.
How a scam like this could ever work is beyond me. Whoever is running it clearly preys on the mentally vulnerable. Regardless, it worked, and the 72-year-olds started liquidating their assets. The pair believed that they would be arrested unless they did as the scammer told them.
They then went out and bought bars of gold, worth around $2 million. "They took money from their accounts and purchased gold," Lt. Bryan McGinn said. "Once they had the gold, the fraudsters sent a courier to pick it up, telling the victims that the gold would be safely stored and eventually returned to them."
In small increments, the scammers took their life savings in the form of small coins and bars of gold. It took the elderly couple months to realize that not only were they never seeing their gold again, but they had been duped.
Naples Police Department Bust Gold Scammers
The elderly couple finally came to the realization that they had been robbed of their gold by scammers. They decided to reach out to the Naples Police for help. You would think that believing they were wanted criminals, they would have done that before.
The Naples Police organized an operation and quickly apprehended Soyeb Rana. He came, once again, to take more gold from the elderly couple and instead found the police waiting for him. He now faced charges of conspiracy, scheme to defraud, fleeing and eluding, and possession of marijuana.
There are an enormous number of scammers in the US dedicated to taking money from elderly and vulnerable people. Many old people are confused and bewildered by the world around them. It's important to keep a check on their finances.
