A 76-year-old Westbury woman received repeated calls from scammers who eventually asked her to hand over nearly $400,000 worth of money to buy gold bars, which the scammers then took from her, according to Nassau County police. these gold bars.
The first incident occurred on Friday, May 19, when the woman received a call from an unknown man claiming her computer had been compromised and she needed to ensure her financial security.
The scammers allegedly told her that in order to do this, she would need to transfer funds from her account and use her savings to buy gold bars.
She reportedly purchased $194,152 worth of gold bars, which the scammers (posing as federal employees) kept in “safe custody” from her residence.
The victim was contacted again on Friday, May 26, and she purchased a second set of gold bars worth $191,836, police said.
This time, the woman was told to put the bullion in a box under a tree in her front yard and the so-called federal agents would pick it up.
She then became suspicious and called the police, who located and arrested Arpit Dineshbhai Patel, 38, of Pennsylvania, and Hitesh Jashbhai Patel, 49, of New Jersey.
Both have been charged with attempted second-degree grand larceny and are scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday, June 1.
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