BETHESDA, Md. — After scamming a Bethesda couple out of $400,000 and convincing them that their money was in danger of being used for child porn and Russian missiles, a New York City man was arrested in the latest gold bar scam targeting Montgomery County residents, county police announced Friday.
The scheme started in September with text messages that pretended to be from Apple reporting an unauthorized charge and ended with the two 75-year-olds wiring $400,000 and turning their money into gold bars to be picked up by a supposed government official, according to Montgomery County Police Department.
Yongxian Huang, 23, was eventually picked up last week after he allegedly ripped off an FBI agent in Maryland, who had been pretending to be an unsuspecting victim, and then drove off to New York.
Huang's arrest is only the latest in a string of Montgomery County scams. Since this summer, MCPD reported "gold bar scams" accounted for millions of dollars stolen.
"This is organized crime at the highest level," Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy said in back August after seven victims were identified over the summer, accounting for $6.3 million worth of gold.
While MCPD law enforcement officials have emphasized that anyone can be scammed, most gold bar victims have been seniors.
On Thursday, MCPD said they had arrested a New York man who scammed an 88-year-old woman and her daughter out of $2.3 million in gold bars.
In each gold bar scam case, Montgomery County residents have been asked to convert their savings and money into gold bars and hand over the bullions to supposed federal agents.
And more recent arrests have an added intimidation factor as scammers tell their victims that if they don't comply their money will be used to fund illegal activity. For example, the 88-year-old victim was told that her millions were being used for "child pornography, human trafficking and illegal gambling." She was also told that the unknown man on the phone worked for the Department of Justice.
The latest arrest also involved victims who had been convinced that their money was being used to commit crimes, as the scammer pretended to be an Federal Trade Commission worker.
Maryland law enforcement who have worked on these cases like Detective Sean Petty of MCPD's financial crimes division have warned Montgomery County residents to be cautious.
“If you think you could not fall victim to this because you have a degree… you’re wrong,” he said. “You can be a victim, no matter your education level. The scammers have preyed on people’s sensibilities and believing that they are talking to a federal agent.”
