Sheriff’s deputies are investigating after a scammer conned an elderly Clark County woman into paying them more than $500,000 in solid gold coins over several months.
The Clark County Sheriff’s Office said Friday that the “sophisticated” scheme convinced the woman — who is in her 70s — that her Social Security number was compromised and she had to provide gold coins to help transfer funds to a new one.
Sheriff’s officials said that one caller posed as an employee at the Federal Office of Inspector General; in another call someone associated with the scam pretended to be a Vancouver police officer.
The woman ultimately converted most of her liquid assets into gold coins, which she gave to someone posing as an “undercover federal agent” with the belief that her assets would be returned later, officials said.
The investigation into the scam is ongoing, and officials have not announced any arrests in the case. The sheriff’s office is asking anyone with information about the scam to call the Clark County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit Tip Line at 564-397-2847.
The sheriff’s office advises anyone who receives a suspicious call that appears to be from a government agency to independently check the agency’s phone number; government agents will never ask for funds in gold, gift cards, or cryptocurrency, the sheriff’s office added.
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