A 74-year-old man from Bethesda, Maryland, was defrauded of more than $1 million after converting his savings into gold bars and unknowingly handing them over to scammers. The Montgomery County Police revealed this alarming case, marking it as part of a growing trend of scams involving gold bars.
The alleged scammer, Vipul J. Thakkar, 52, of Owings Mills, was arrested on Wednesday after collecting the final installment of gold bars from the victim’s residence. Thakkar faces multiple charges of attempted theft and is currently held without bond.
The scam began in March when the Bethesda resident received an email claiming a suspicious deposit had been made into his bank account. The email advised him to convert his funds into gold to protect his assets.
Between March and June, the victim purchased over $1.1 million worth of gold bars across ten transactions, handing them over to individuals associated with the scammer.
The scheme was exposed when the victim saw a news report about an 82-year-old woman from Montgomery County who lost $900,000 in a similar scam. Realizing he might be a victim, he contacted the Montgomery County Police Department’s Financial Crimes Section.
On Wednesday, a detective posed as the victim and handed Thakkar a package of gold bars at the Bethesda man’s home. Thakkar was subsequently arrested after driving away with the package.
Montgomery County officials report an increase in these scams, often targeting older individuals and instructing them to convert their bank account funds into gold bars. The case of the 82-year-old woman involved a 19-year-old suspect from New York City.
Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy noted that at least 17 victims in the county have lost millions in these scams.
“People are losing their life savings to this scam, and it’s not just here in Montgomery County – it’s happening across the country,” McCarthy stated. He emphasized the difficulty of recovering the stolen funds, as gold bars are hard to trace and may be melted down or transformed into other forms.