Post by anenro on Jun 2, 2023 17:17:26 GMT 4
2 men arrested for scamming LI woman, 76, out of life savings in gold bar scheme
WESTBURY, N.Y. (1010 WINS) — Two men were arrested Wednesday for scamming a 76-year-old Long Island woman out of hundreds of thousands of dollars by convincing her to convert her life savings into gold bars and hand them over for safekeeping, according to the Nassau County Police Department.
Arpit Patel, 38, and Hitesh Patel, 49, called the Westbury woman over the phone on May 19 claiming to work for a computer security company.
The alleged fraudsters told the woman her computer had been compromised and advised her to convert her money to gold bars to keep it safe, according to officials.
The victim purchased $194,152 worth of gold bars, and arranged to meet a phony federal employee, one of the scammers in disguise, to hand over the gold for safekeeping.
On May 26, the scammers contacted her again and convinced her to buy three more gold bars, worth $191,836. The victim became suspicious when the men told her to put the gold bars in a box under a tree in front of her house and called law enforcement.
Prosecutors charged both men with attempted grand larceny at their arraignment Thursday.