A fraudster impersonates a federal investigator and approaches a woman in her 60s. Claiming that your identity has been stolen, he induces you to purchase gold bars and then suggests that you entrust them to a government agent for safekeeping. It’s an absurd proposition, but he buys the gold bars himself and delivers them to scammers who pretend to be agents of the Federal Treasury or the FBI.
The moment you believe in them, the gold bars disappear before your eyes. This is a scam using gold bars that is popular nationwide. Recently, at least 12 elderly people were affected in Montgomery County, Maryland, and the damage amounted to millions of dollars. In fact, victims often do not even know that they have been scammed, and they keep it a secret from their family or acquaintances, so the damage is revealed later.
Accordingly, the police, who launched a trap investigation, arranged to meet with the fraudster posing as a victim on the 18th and arrested the suspect at the scene. The arrested suspect (Wenhui Sun) had already received gold bars worth $780,000 on two occasions and was arrested by the police while contacting the victim to receive the third gold bars that day. Her victim was a 64-year-old Leisure World resident who believed the scammers were federal agents until her family told her she was being scammed.
The suspect is being held without bond and her gold has not yet been returned. Montgomery County Prosecutor John McCarthy announced, “This is one of at least 12 fraud cases that have occurred in Montgomery County, and the total damage is expected to exceed $8 million.” Federal authorities warned of a similar fraud in January, and the damage is estimated to be more than $55 million nationwide.