Suffolk County Police Financial Crimes Unit detectives are investigating a scam during which police prevented a man to try to purchase gold at a Centereach coin store today.
On August 12, a 69-year-old Hauppauge man received a pop-up notification on his computer and called the phone number in the message, and was told he was speaking with federal agents. They told the victim that his financial accounts were vulnerable and instructed the man to purchase gold to send to them to secure his financial accounts.
The victim withdrew money from his IRA retirement account to pay for the gold. A fraud investigator from his bank contacted Financial Crimes Unit detectives regarding the size of the withdrawal and that the money was being wired to a gold dealer. Detectives responded to the Centereach store where they stopped the victim from attempting to purchase approximately $466,000 in gold bars.
Detectives are asking anyone who believes they may be a victim of a scam or anyone who has information about a scam to call the Financial Crimes Unit at 631-852-6821.