Suffolk County police intervened before a 69-year-old Hauppauge man could purchase approximately $466,000 in gold bars after investigators said scammers posing as federal agents convinced him his financial accounts were at risk.
The Suffolk County Police Department Financial Crimes Unit said the man received a pop-up notification on his computer on Wednesday, Aug. 12, and called the phone number displayed in the message.
The people who answered claimed to be federal agents and told him his financial accounts were vulnerable, police said. They instructed him to purchase gold and send it to them as a way of securing those accounts.
The man withdrew money from his IRA retirement account to fund the purchase.
A fraud investigator at his bank became concerned about the size of the withdrawal and the fact that the money was being wired to a gold dealer, according to police. The investigator contacted the Financial Crimes Unit.
Detectives then responded to a coin store in Centereach, where they found the man as he was attempting to purchase approximately $466,000 worth of gold bars.
Police interrupted the transaction before the purchase was completed.
The Financial Crimes Unit is continuing to investigate the scam.
Anyone who believes they may have been targeted by a scam, or who has information about a scam, is asked to contact Suffolk County police Financial Crimes Unit detectives at 631-852-6821.
