Detectives Responding To Centereach Coin Dealer Foil Plan To Swindle $466K From Senior In Gold Scam: Police

CENTEREACH, NY — Detectives are investigating a scam in which police foiled a man who was trying to purchase gold at a Centereach coin store on Wednesday, Suffolk police said.

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, according to police. They told the man that his financial accounts were vulnerable and instructed him to purchase gold to send to them to secure his financial accounts, police said.

The man withdrew money from his IRA retirement account to pay for the gold, and a fraud investigator from his bank contacted Suffolk's Financial Crimes Unit detectives regarding the size of the withdrawal and that the money was being wired to a gold dealer, according to police.

Detectives responded to the Centereach store where they
intercepted the man trying to purchase around $466,000 in gold bars, police said.

Further details were not released.

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.