Suffolk warns seniors about gold-buying scam targeting bank savings

Suffolk County officials are warning older residents about a gold-buying scam that began with a computer pop-up and nearly sent about $140,000 in gold out of western Suffolk. District Attorney Ray Tierney said the scheme is aimed at elderly people in the county and can move from a screen warning to a real-world handoff in minutes.

Tierney said the woman in the western Suffolk case responded to a pop-up on her computer and was told her finances were at risk. She was then instructed to buy a kilogram gold bar and hand it over to protect her money. Suffolk officials stopped the loss before the gold disappeared.

No legitimate government agent will tell someone to buy and deliver gold bars, move money to a secure account or hand cash to a stranger, the Federal Trade Commission says. Scammers increasingly use fake security alerts and false alarms to prey on older adults who want to protect savings and identity.

In September 2025, the FBI’s Boston Division warned that fraudsters were using couriers to collect bulk cash or gold bars from unwitting victims, most of them elderly. Those scams often come with instructions to keep the matter secret from family, friends or financial institutions, making it harder for adult children, bankers or caregivers to spot the fraud before the money leaves the account.

Long Island police had seen about a dozen of these thefts in the past year, often tied to international theft rings and hackers. In an earlier Suffolk case, a man scammed victims out of about $500,000, including $277,000 in gold bars, after telling two women in their 70s that their computers had been compromised.

The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center logged more than 201,000 complaints from victims over 60 in 2025, with losses topping $7.7 billion. At least 12,400 older victims lost $100,000 or more. Gold bar scams have become more common as gold prices hit all-time highs.