Gold bar scams prey on the elderly, Long Island authorities warn, convincing them to buy gold and stealing their assets

When an elderly Suffolk County woman insisted on buying a kilogram gold bar worth $140,000 from a dealer, authorities knew it was probably a scam.

Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney and police are warning of such scammers preying on primarily elderly residents. They are sometimes directing them to liquidate their life savings to buy gold bars, which are then taken by a courier, allegedly for safe keeping, but actually stolen.

Police said they have seen about a dozen of the thefts in the past year, often committed by international theft rings and hackers who may send internet pop up messages or calls warning residents their accounts have been compromised.

"In a typical type of gold bar scam, the scammers will contact victims by phone, text, voicemail or a computer pop-up, and if the victim engages with them, the scammers have them," Tierney said. "It's sort of like phishing. Once they're on the hook, these scammers are professionals, and they will steal their money."

Generally, the scammers will tell the victim that they will send a courier to pick up the gold once it’s acquired to protect their money, Tierney said. Instead, the victims never see the gold again.

Suffolk County legislators are also proposing laws that would require warning signs in gold dealers' stores about potential scams and add protections for potential victims. The law would require dealers to hold for 48 hours the funds from a purchase of precious metals of more than $50,000. This would allow time for the buyer, the dealer or law enforcement to review the transaction.

The law would also require buyers age 60 and over to answer a list of questions about the transaction, upon the purchase, to make sure they are not being victimized by a scammer.

In a recent case in the past two months, police said bankers called to report a woman was attempting to liquidate her assets to buy a gold bar.

Suffolk County detectives went to the woman’s home to convince the woman it was scam and to stop the gold bar purchase.

The woman was evasive with police. The scammers had tried to convince her that the sale was confidential and that she could not tell authorities. The woman told police she received a pop-up window on her computer that said her accounts were hacked.

While police were interviewing the woman, they believed the scammers could listen to their conversation about the fraud through the computer, prompting detectives to unplug the device, Tierney said.

Police contacted the bank to cancel two checks paid to a gold bar company and return the money to the woman’s account.

David Gordon, who owns Whitman Coin and Jewelry in Melville, said customers have twice attempted to make unusual large purchases of 1 kilogram bars of gold, which the store does not keep on hand.

After the first purchase about six months ago, he said he recognized the warning signs and when a different woman tried to make a similar purchase recently the store called police. Gordon said he also warned other coin and gold dealers.

"The second time that she was insistent, again was another red flag. So we called the detectives to say, please check this out," Gordon said. "It's terrible. You imagine if it was your own mother, your father, your grandparent."

Gordon said he would be glad to see warning posters in stores. He said the gold and coin business try to look for potential scams, but said banks should flag suspicious activities and authorities should warn dealers of recent potential fraud.

Authorities warned residents and adult children of the elderly to look for warning signs of scammers, such as unsolicited calls, emails with links or pop-up messages requesting money or warnings of access to bank accounts. Tierney said scammers can often pose as bank officials or authorities requesting financial information.

"If somebody asks you to liquidate your assets and buy gold, it's always a scam. Every single time, it's a scam," Suffolk Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina said.

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.