Eugene police warn of gold bar scam costing victims thousands

Eugene police are warning Lane County residents that a gold bar scam has reached the Eugene area, and the people most likely to be caught in it are older adults who are told their bank accounts or computers have been hacked.

The scam usually starts with an unexpected phone call or email. The caller claims money in the victim’s account is tied to serious crimes, including a false allegation that the funds were used to buy weapons for a foreign country. To make the pitch sound real, scammers may recite names, Social Security numbers or other personal details, while pretending to be government agents or law enforcement.

From there, the pressure escalates fast. Victims are told to move money into gold bars, cash out accounts, or hand over valuables to a courier at home or at another location. Eugene police say victims can lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in these schemes, which is why the department is trying to stop the fraud before more money leaves the area.

Federal authorities have been tracking the same playbook for at least two years. The FBI said courier-based scams involving cash and precious metals caused more than $55 million in losses from May through December 2023, with many of the victims identified as senior citizens. The FBI’s Boston office later documented 103 courier-related cases from 2023 through May 2025, with losses totaling $26,024,691, and said roughly 98% of those losses were reported by people over age 60.

State officials have seen the damage up close in Oregon. In July 2025, the Oregon Department of Justice said an Eastern Oregon woman was tricked out of $600,000, nearly her entire life savings, after scammers convinced her they were federal agents and that gold bars were the only safe way to protect her money. Officials stopped an additional $300,000 transfer after her sister called the consumer hotline. Oregon Division of Financial Regulation administrator TK Keen said the scammers use fear and false urgency while physically showing up in communities to carry out the fraud.

The warning signs are blunt: do not trust a caller or email claiming your account was hacked, do not buy gold bars or hand cash to a stranger, and do not believe anyone who says a government agency needs you to move money into a “secure” account. Families, bank staff and neighbors can help by slowing the conversation, urging an independent call to the bank or agency using a number already known, and getting involved before a withdrawal or gold purchase is completed. Eugene police say victims who have already lost money should call the department’s non-emergency line at 541-682-5111 and report the scam to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.

The gold-warning comes after Eugene police had already alerted residents to fake gold jewelry sales in parking lots and on the street, where at least three people in Eugene and Lane County were victimized within two weeks.