‘It’s hard to get it back,’ cop warns after man loses $1.5M – he was just trying to protect his Social Security number

A FLORIDA community has struggled mightily with scammers who continue to prey on senior citizens — including a veteran who lost $1.5 million in a gold bullion scam.

Bradenton Police Chief Melanie Bevan said her department reported losses of more than $2 million last year, targeting mostly older residents at disproportionate rates.

two

But one veteran was scammed out of $1.5 million after fraudsters convinced the man to buy gold bars and hand them over to thieves.

This situation led Bevan to create a special task force dedicated to investigating this type of fraud and educating the public, especially the elderly.

Detective Jim Curulla, who leads that team, said the thieves went to the unidentified veteran’s home pretending to be federal agents and saying they had a warrant for his arrest, claiming he committed social security fraud.

After the encounter at his door, the veteran began receiving phone calls from someone claiming to be the supervisor of those who showed up at his door.

“She [the scammer] began calling the victim once or twice a day for almost a month,” Curulla told the local NBC affiliate. WFLA-TV.

“Eventually she said he would help them solve social security fraud,” Curulla continued.

“She needed some money to use and they were going to transfer some of his money and use it as bait.”

Curulla says police arrested the man who took the gold bars.

However, there is only a small chance of getting the man’s money back.

“There are heartbreaking story after heartbreaking story when you listen to these people,” Bevan said.

“It’s a variety of crimes, but it’s always the same, they’re just victims.”

“For various reasons, they feel the need to hand over their money and it is often difficult to get it back,” she continued.

Crimes like this disproportionately affect the elderly, according to FBI.

This is because older Americans tend to be less tech literate than their younger counterparts.

“It’s no different than someone sitting at a table with a gun pointed at you,” Jessie Schmidt, vice president of the Better Business Bureau of South Dakota, told the local CBS affiliate. KELO after a similar blow.

“They are so threatening and intimidating. They know every rebuttal.”

In 2023, there were more than 101,000 reported scam victims over the age of 60, compared to just 18,000 for those under 18, according to FBI data.

Scams targeting Americans aged 60 and over also caused losses of more than $3.4 billion, an 11% increase from the previous year.

“We’re tired of this,” Bevan said. “We may not be powerful, but we will fight hard.

“We will invest as many resources as we can into this.”