Westlake Police Scam the Scammers in $200K Gold Bust

Letter received by the victim. The letter spells out how the scammers perpetrated this ruse over many months.

On 3/23/26 at approx. 11AM, a 78yo resident arrived at the WPD station to report being the victim of a scam. The woman relayed that sometime in August of 2025 she had been on her home computer when a red box popped up indicating that she had been “hacked.” The pop up provided a phone number for “Apple Security.” The victim called the number and was connected to someone claiming to be an FBI agent. The fake FBI agent began to walk the victim down an elaborate story of cyber attacks, international investigations and even the death of an undercover federal agent. Official sounding phone calls and mailed letters were used to make the victim believe that their identity was revealed during this investigation and they therefore were legally obligated to participate in the federal investigation. Due to the seriousness of the circumstances, the victim was also ordered, under penalty of law, to maintain complete confidentiality and was told to keep the secret from friends, family or other law enforcement. Eventually, the victim was ordered to withdraw large sums of cash from her accounts and buy gold coins and gold bars. She was promised that all would be held by the government and returned to her upon the completion of the investigation. The woman used the ruse story, provided by the scammers, of doing home remodeling to take cash out of her accounts. She bought the gold as instructed and, over 3 days at the end of 2025 and beginning of 2026, turned it all over to “agents” who showed up at her home in Westlake. In all she turned over almost $200,000 worth of gold to the fake agents. The victim was drawn out of the months long scam by an alert business owner at Carat Coin in North Olmsted. She had gone to the business to buy additional gold for the fake agents when the employees there were able to talk the woman into believing she was getting scammed.

Gold used in the investigation

Upon learning that our elderly resident had been victimized, WPD officers and detectives began to scam the scammers. They used the victim’s electronics to agree to another gold pick up. The detectives drew the fake federal agents out into the open by providing forged receipts and photos of realistic looking imitation gold. On 3/25/26 at about 11AM, the scammer couriers showed back up at the victim’s residence. They collected the fake gold and went about their day believing they had successfully victimized the Westlake resident again. This time Westlake PD cruisers, drones and detectives were watching. The suspect vehicle was stopped in the area of Crocker and Detroit. 2 males were taken into custody within 2 days of WPD learning of the crime. Charges for the 2 men arrested include felony counts of Theft by deception and complicity to commit theft.

The suspects are both male: 41yo from Danville, PA and 36yo from Gettysburg, PA