A 67-year-old Manhattan resident was swindled out of $9 million in gold bars after a fake computer security alert convinced him his financial assets were compromised.
Computer Alert and the West 81st Street Handoff
The caller warned that the victim’s financial assets were compromised, convincing him that gold bars were safer than cash and promising that in exchange for several of the bars, the security alert would be fixed.
The suspect took the sack of gold and immediately fled on foot, authorities said. Isaac Kahan, the owner of Bullion Trading LLC, a gold and silver dealer in Manhattan’s Diamond District, wondered about the sheer logistics that were involved in the heist.
How the Financial Crimes Task Force Explains the Scam
The Manhattan incident aligns with a broader threat. This August, the NYPD warned New Yorkers about a sophisticated group of scammers targeting seniors between their 60s and 90s with the gold bar scheme, which had already netted around $100 million. Sergeant Rashawn Vaughn of the Financial Crimes Task Force detailed the tactics used by these networks:
Somebody gets on the line explaining that their computer was infected with a virus, and they need to gain access to their computer so they can fix the issue.
Sergeant Rashawn Vaughn, NYPD Financial Crimes Task Force
In this process, the victims are coerced into providing remote access to their computers, allowing these perpetrators to gain control. It means that they have access to your webcam, your printer, your audio, and your computer.
Sergeant Rashawn Vaughn, NYPD Financial Crimes Task Force
Anyone with information regarding the Upper West Side incident is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or, for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
