Two couriers have been arrested and the FBI is warning Americans about a sweeping fraud scheme in which criminals pose as federal agents to loot retirees’ life savings.
The bureau calls it a “sophisticated, multi-layer scam” that deploys fake FTC officials, secret passwords and physical gold pickups to drain elderly victims. Cases in Wyoming and Wisconsin, both cracked last month, show how the operation unfolds from first contact to handcuffs.
In Laramie, Wyoming, an elderly woman lost roughly $131,000 in gold after callers pretending to be Federal Trade Commission agents convinced her that her money was in danger, according to local authorities. The scammers pushed her to buy $460,000 in gold altogether. Police began investigating on Sept. 22.
A local coin shop owner grew suspicious and contacted police, who enlisted the victim herself in a sting operation. Officers borrowed one-ounce gold bars from another dealer to stage a photograph of her “purchase,” and worked with her credit union to temporarily process a $500,000 transaction to make the ruse convincing.
On Oct. 2, the woman agreed to hand off the gold to a courier at a Qdoba restaurant in Laramie. She and the courier settled on the password “tulip” for the exchange. An undercover detective posing as the victim went to the meeting in her place.
Police arrested Jithin Sunny, a Canadian citizen, and charged him with felony theft. Sunny claimed to authorities that he had been contacted on Instagram about a delivery job in the United States, under the impression he would be delivering antiques to wealthy clients.
After his arrest, the Canadian man told authorities he didn’t know about the scam, saying he’d been instructed to travel to Laramie, pick up a package from someone and hand it off to a second courier.
A parallel case unfolded in Wisconsin, where a victim was using Facebook on a laptop when a pop-up message claimed there was a virus, according to the Marquette County Sheriff’s Office. The message displayed a phone number to call to secure personal information.
When the victim dialed, a man answered and said the call was being transferred to the Federal Trade Commission’s fraud department. Scammers then allegedly told the victim someone had tried to drain their savings account through a wire transfer, but it was blocked.
To protect their assets, the victim was allegedly told to withdraw their savings, convert the money into gold bars and wait for an “officer” to collect them at home. The victim bought gold bars, photographed them and bagged them for pickup.
The sheriff’s office said the victim spent much of Oct. 20 on the phone with a man who called himself “Sam.” When a sheriff’s deputy arrived at the home and the victim mentioned it, “Sam” ordered them to hang up, tell the deputy nothing and call back once he was gone.
When the victim resumed speaking with “Sam,” they were instructed to take the bag with gold outside and wait for the courier to arrive. Law enforcement caught the man who picked up the gold, identified as Dhavalkumar Dashrathgiri Bava. He was taken into custody on charges of felony conspiracy to commit theft of more than $100,000 by false representation, with an enhanced penalty because the victim was elderly.
Tom Hyslip, former Secret Service agent and professor of cybercrime at the University of South Florida, said that the scam is operated by “organized criminal gangs.”
“A lot of them operate out of Africa. There’s been many indictments of arrests over the years for these types of scams. And they’ve been going around for years and the criminals keep changing their MO. It used to be the Nigerian Prince. And then it went to the investment scheme or someone’s been kidnapped,” Hyslip said.
“So now they’re trying to take their time, pretend they’re from a government agency or your bank, build that rapport, build the trust, then they make the ask.”
The FBI continues to investigate the nationwide pattern as local law enforcement urges seniors and their families to verify any government contact through official channels before transferring assets.