How fake package from KY helped police catch scammer stealing hundreds of thousands in gold
A fake package mailed from Kentucky played a key role in helping authorities capture a man who was part of a scam that stole hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of gold bars from senior citizens.
One of the victims, a woman who lived in a Silver Spring, Md., retirement community called Leisure World, bought nearly $800,000 worth of gold bars in two separate transactions and then handed each of the shipments of gold over to the scammers in a parking lot, believing she was giving her savings to federal agents for safekeeping, according to Maryland court records and officials there.
Federal authorities say the scam is being perpetrated throughout the U.S.
Wenhui Sun, a courier who collected one of the shipments of gold bars from the woman, pleaded guilty to multiple theft charges Friday.
Officials in Kentucky declined to share specifics about their role , but court records explain how the case unfolded.
The woman in Maryland told police that in late February she received a call from a man claiming to be from the Federal Trade Commission’s Office of Inspector General. He told her “she was the victim of identity theft, which led to a federal investigation involving drugs and money laundering.”
That man put her in touch with a man claiming to be “Officer David Freeman,” who said he would help her get a new social security number and put her in a witness protection program if she would cooperate with their “investigation.”
“To ensure her cooperation and secure her assets,” he told the woman to buy gold bars from JM Bullion, a legitimate retailer of precious metals. She was then told to turn the gold over to “FBI agents” who would put them in the Department of the Treasury.
The woman did as she was told and used $331,817 from her Capital One account to buy five gold bars weighing one kilogram each on Feb. 21.
A representative of the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office in Maryland said the bars were shipped from a location in Kentucky.
The scammer stayed in “constant contact” with the victim, who sent him screenshots showing updates about the delivery status of the gold from JM Bullion and UPS, according to court documents.
The package arrived March 5, court records say, and the woman dropped it off to a courier who claimed to be from the FBI in the parking lot of a Silver Spring Walgreens.
The process was repeated the next day, as the woman ordered another $457,410 worth of gold bars, which she turned over to the scammers March 8.
After the second drop-off, she discovered the scam — court records don’t say how — and contacted police.
Police trick scammers
Police obtained video from Leisure World, the gated retirement community in a suburb of Washington, D.C. It showed the face of the courier who made the second pickup, as well as the license plate of the rental truck he drove that day.
The investigation, they said, led them to Sun.
The tables began to turn, as financial crimes detectives helped the victim keep in touch with the scammers.
To lure them back with the promise of more gold, the detectives gave the woman fake documents to share with the scammers that suggested she had bought another shipment.
“It worked, and the scammers indicated that they would return to pick up the new shipment of gold bars valued at $376,113.24,” the court document states.
Since the gold had come from Kentucky the first time, a detective from the Lexington Police Department mailed a fake envelope to simulate the route the cons were expecting the package to take, a representative of the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office said in an email.
The Montgomery County Police Department also confirmed that the Lexington Police Department’s Financial Crimes Unit helped with the case.
In response to a request for information, the Lexington Police Department issued a statement deferring to police in Maryland, saying they “played a small part when they were asked to assist with the investigation by the Maryland State Police.”
On March 18, after the woman told the scammers she had received the package containing five gold bars, police say Sun came back to Leisure World to make the pickup.
A detective posing as the victim placed a box — which contained only “packing paper and notice of the police operation to intercept the third pick-up” — in the back seat of the vehicle, court documents say.
Sun was stopped and arrested after he left the parking lot with the fake package.
He told police he didn’t know what was in the package he had picked up from the woman March 8. He said a friend in China had asked him to drive down from New York to retrieve the package, and he did so for free, the court record states.
Sun, 34, of Lake Arbor, Calif., pleaded guilty Friday to charges of theft scheme over $100,000, theft over $100,000, attempted theft over $100,000 and conspiracy to commit theft over $100,000.
He faces up to 80 years in prison, according to a news release from the state’s attorney in Montgomery County, Md. Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 9.
“We will be seeking a sentence that reflects the seriousness of the impact on this victim,” State’s Attorney John McCarthy said in the release.
Five people, including Sun, have been arrested in Montgomery County as part of the investigation. Sun’s case marks the first conviction.
‘You are not going to get that gold back’
Officials say the gold bars scam, which targets elderly people, is widespread.
“People are losing their life savings, their homes, their trusts, their security,” William DelBagno, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Baltimore field office, said in an August news conference. “Unfortunately, it’s happening across the United States.”
Scammers posing as government agents tell their victims their bank account information has been compromised, and to protect their money, they should convert it to gold and then give it to the purported government agent for safekeeping.
Some cases begin with a phone call to the victim, while others begin when the victim clicks on a popup ad on their computer directing them to install software or contact a “tech support” person by phone.
“It is international,” McCarthy said at the news conference in August. “This is organized crime at the highest level.”
Four victims lost $2.9 million in the scam uncovered in Silver Spring, McCarthy said at the news conference.
“We believe that the total number of victims in our county alone is now close to 20, with millions more lost,” he said.
None of their money had been recovered.
“Once you’re a victim in one of these scams, the chances of getting your money back is not high,” McCarthy said.
If they withdrew the money to buy the gold from a taxable account, McCarthy said the victims could also receive a tax bill.
“Some are potentially losing their homes,” he said.
McCarthy said people should never click on popup ads on their computers.
And, he said, “Don’t answer the phone if you don’t recognize the number.”
Det. Sean Petty, of the Montgomery County Police Department Financial Crimes Section, who investigated the case, noted that legitimate government agencies would not contact you via pop-up ad or unsolicited phone call telling you to convert assets to gold.
“If you’re getting these phone calls, we want you to think twice about what you’re going to do,” Petty said. “If you end up getting that phone call, and there’s somebody on the other end that says, ‘Hey, we want you to convert your assets into gold bars because we’re going to have somebody come pick them up for you and put them into safekeeping because we’re the federal government or the state government or a local entity, it’s a scam. One hundred percent it’s a scam.
“You are not going to get that gold back,” he said.
In the 15 months leading up to August, the FBI received more than 250 complaints through its Internet Crime Complaint Center about scams related to couriers collecting gold bars, DelBagno said. Those reports represented nearly $84 million lost.
“The scammers are very convincing,” he said. “They convince you that the only way to protect your money is to convert it to gold. ...Government agencies will never ask you to collect gold or cash.”
He said people who receive phone calls suggesting that should “resist the pressure to act quickly” and “talk it through” with a friend or family member.
People who believe they have fallen victim to the scam were asked to come forward and report the fraud to their local law enforcement agency and to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
