Multiple Gold Bar Schemes in Illinois

The FBI has issued warnings that this scam was becoming more prevalent and now there are multiple cases in Illinois where gold bar schemes have cost victims millions in precious metals and cash.

Earlier this year, the FBI issued a bulletin advising caution about perpetrators that especially targeted the elderly. There are variations of this scam, but the robbers convince victims that they are representatives from a bank, a tech company or the government and claim the victim's bank account has been compromised. They attempt to get the victims to convert their cash into gold which they promise they will put in a secure location while their accounts are verified and recovered.

The Times Union is now reporting that an Illinois man is accused of robbing one family of at least $1 million dollars. They report that an unemployed Illinois student named Harmish Patel was charged with conspiracy to commit interstate transportation of property taken by fraud. The FBI is alleging that he convinced the couple to purchase art, gold bullion which he is accused of taking.

In a separate case in Maryland, he is accused of stealing $789,227 in gold from another woman.

There is yet another incident in Illinois where this scheme has been attempted according to reports. A Des Plains, Illinois, man named Ligneshkumar H. Patel, 37, who was charged in Madison and St. Louis County of scamming two different victims of tens of thousands of gold and cash according to First Alert 4. He allegedly portrayed himself as a representative of the FTC claiming that her computer had been used to produce illicit materials and her bank account would be frozen if she did not pay $100,000.

Patel was reportedly found and arrested in Wisconsin where police found gold wrappers and receipts in the vehicle he was driving.

As the FBI warned in the original bulletin, neither the government or Microsoft will contact anyone requesting personal information over the phone or funds to pay a penalty the victim had no knowledge of. The fact that multiple individuals in Illinois are now accused of being a part of this gold and cash scheme should cause everyone to be on their guard and alert to this type of fraud.