Kris Owen, a 79 -year -old Vietnam veteran, had planned to spend his golden years in Indiana with his wife, Karen. They wanted to spend more time with their son and travel the world together.
But she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019, and Covid-19 pandemic hit shortly after.
“All our plans to travel and everything went out the window,” Owen told ABC News.
Two years later, Owen’s wife died.
“Probably one of the reasons why I was so susceptible to what happened to me,” Owen said.
Kris Owen and his wife Karen.
Courtesy Kris Owen
Owen received an emerging message on his computer in 2023 saying that his personal information was compromised, and told him to call a phone number.
When he did, an individual who passed a federal agent said he would safeguard his money and told him to turn some of his savings into gold bars, Owen told ABC News. After weeks of communications and after receiving what he thought it was a letter from the FBI, Owen bought gold bars worth $ 80,000.
“They told me to wrap it in a box … with Christmas wrapping paper,” Owen said.
Then he took his gold to the parking lot of a grocery store near his home, he said, hoping to deliver it to a federal agent so that gold could stay in a safe place. A car soon stopped next to Owen and placed the gold in the back seat before the driver took off.
He never saw the money again.
Owen soon realized that he was the victim of a scam, and is far from being alone.
As the value of gold increases, Grifters has changed the view to obtaining more precious metals in a growing scheme that disappointed Americans of about $ 126 million in 2024, according to the FBI.
“Gold Grifters”, a new investigation by ABC News in collaboration with the ABC WABC-TV and WLS-TV stations, found the victims of the Messenger Scam of the Golden Bar throughout the country.
As the victims continue to stumble upon the trick and lose millions of dollars each, the scheme has apparently surprised the authorities.
“I have never seen a scam to this magnitude, as intricate and as detailed as this, which can attack so many people throughout the United States,” Sean Petty, detective of the Montgomery County Police Department that has investigated multiple scams of bar Gold cases in Maryland, he told ABC News.
The Montgomery County detective, Sean Petty, gives a presentation to a retirement community in Montgomery County, Maryland.
ABC News
Look “Gold Grifters”, an ABC news investigation, in “ABC News Live Prime” at 7 pm et on February 25, 2025.
A golden moment for gold
The scam that involves gold bars occurs when the value of the precious metal is worth more than ever. According to the owners of the owners of the stores, people are storing gold in record numbers, and businesses continue with boom in gold stores throughout the country.
“Everyone buy gold as a safe shelter,” said Tony Jordan, owner of Midwest Jewelry and Bullion in Indianapolis. “It’s a hot product at this safe time.”
But as the price of gold increases, scammers have noticed.
“Everyone knows that gold is worth something,” said Chris Delzotto, head of the FBI Financial Crime Unit.
Kris Owen lost $ 80,000 for the scam of the Golden Bar.
ABC News
Catching a messenger
Shortly after Owen delivered some of his life savings, the scammers passed through the federal agents contacted him again to request more money.
“They returned and started again,” said Owen, explaining that they had said: “‘Now we need to keep the rest of the money in our safe vault with their other money.”
Owen, who already suspected, contacted the police.
“Then we established the operation Sting,” Owen said.
The FBI and a Local Police Department of Indiana had gone undercover to try to catch an individual who was supposed to receive $ 50,000 of him. Owen, with a cable, met with the individual in a parking lot and placed a box with false cash in the individual’s back seat.
“And I said: ‘You are my agent’. And he said: ‘Yes,” Owen told ABC News. “This time he spoke. And then he left as before.”
The police followed the individual, who later identified as Abdul Mohammed, and led him to interrogate him. He was accused of federal conspiracy prosecutors to commit electronic fraud and two electronic fraud charges.
Mohammed, who later fled the country, was a messenger, an individual recruited to collect gold or effective bars from the victims, according to officials responsible for enforcing the law.
The FBI says that some emails play a more important role in the criminal scheme, while others claim that they were simply hired to collect and leave packages. Throughout the country, officials and prosecutors in charge of enforcing the law are pointing to emails to try to stop the criminal operation.
Chris Delzotto, head of the section of the Financial Crimes Unit for the FBI.
ABC News
An alleged messenger speaks
In an exclusive telephone interview, ABC News spoke with an alleged messaging service of the jail while facing positions in two states for their alleged participation in the gold bar schemes.
Yash Shah, 27, who was originally accused of multiple serious crimes in 2023 related to the scam, says he does not know where the gold is going. He declared himself guilty and sentenced to five years of probation, but was arrested again last November for his alleged participation in a Maryland case. He is currently detained without bail at a New York detention center.
“I’m not a criminal or anything like that,” Shah told ABC News. “I’m just a normal person. [were] I just say … if you want to earn a little more money, you must go pick up the package, and you just have to leave it there. That’s all.”
Shah states that he was hired by someone from India and was paid between $ 800 and $ 4,000 to collect packages, some containing gold bars. His lawyer, Nicholas Ramcharitar, said that Shah made between five and 10 trips traveling all over the northeast as a messenger.
“I want to be clear, Yash’s guilt is definitely there,” Ramcharitar ABC News told. “He understands what he did.”
Shah said he feels guilty for playing a role in the scam and wants to help the police find the “intellectual authors.”
“There will be many layers because they are operating from India,” Shah said.
Delzotto told ABC News that the FBI is investigating the call centers in India that are linked to the scam.
“These emerging technical support windows that start all the scam emanate from a call center in India,” Delzotto said. “So we focus a lot on India with [a lot of] These illegitimate call centers. “
An urgent warning
In the United States, as emails face prison sentences, officials responsible for enforcing the law are traveling to high -level communities to raise awareness about the scam.
“One of the main things that is whatever [in] Police can do against any scam, particularly those who go to our elders, is to advise … and educate … about what are those scams, “said John McCarthy, state prosecutor for Montgomery County, Maryland.
Delzotto told ABC News that because the scams are becoming more sophisticated, people must be cautious with the messages they receive on their computer.
“Never click sites with which you are not familiar,” said Delzotto. “We use the phrase ‘Take a rhythm’ here. Take a step back. Check with a relative or trusted friend. See if it makes sense before participating.”
Jason Knowles of WLS-TV and David Paredes of WABC-TV contributed to this report.
