Online scammers con elderly couple out of $3 million in gold bars - that only ended with an FBI sting

The scam ended on Friday, when an undercover FBI sting nabbed a courier allegedly working for the fraud ring

The final shipment of gold the FBI used to nab one alleged member of a fraud ring that scammed an couple out of $3 million (US District Court for the District of Oregon)

Online fraudsters duped an elderly Oregon couple out of more than $3 million in gold bars as part of a months-long scam that finally ended Friday with an FBI sting involving secret passwords, an undercover handoff and five-plus kilos of decoy bullion wrapped up like Christmas presents.

Alleged courier Biao Lin, 27, is now facing three federal counts of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. When Lin was arrested in Portland on October 4, he claimed he had been unwittingly put up to the task by a stranger he had met at a public library in New York.

Lin does not yet have an attorney listed in court records, and was not reachable for comment.

The con began on June 10, when an 86-year-old woman identified in a criminal complaint unsealed Monday as “Adult Victim 1,” or, AV1, tried to log in to two investment accounts she maintained at Vanguard, both of which contained “several million dollars,” according to court filings.

“However, instead of gaining access to her account, AV1 was notified her password was not working, and she was locked out of her account,” states the federal criminal complaint, which IDs AV1’s 93-year-old husband as Adult Victim 2, or, AV2.

The alleged scam took place in Portland, where the eldely victims live (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

AV1 then received a call from someone purporting to be from the Vanguard fraud department, who said her accounts had been hacked and that her Social Security number had been stolen, according to the complaint.

The caller told AV1 that someone had tried to steal money from her Vanguard accounts, and that there were certain safety precautions she needed to follow in order to secure her funds, the complaint says. She was then given a name and phone number to call at “the fraud section of the Social Security Administration,” the complaint goes on, after which she was handed off to a “Michael Lewis,” who was presented to AV1 as the Social Security official assigned to her case.

Lewis instructed AV1 to install UltraViewer, a piece of software that would allow him to control her computer remotely, according to the complaint. Next, Lewis informed AV1 that Vanguard only insured customer accounts up to a certain amount, and that since hers exceeded those limits, she needed to immediately convert her money into gold bars at US Bank, the complaint continues.

After that, the complaint says Lewis told AV1, she would need to transfer the gold to the US Treasury, which would store it safely, and once her accounts were secured, the gold would be transferred back to her.

On June 24, AV1 wired $466,043 from her bank to purchase the first tranche of gold bars, according to the complaint. But when she tried to do it a second time, the bank declined to put the transaction through, the complaint states. It says Lewis then directed AV1 to open a new account at a different bank, which carried out AV1’s subsequent gold purchases, funded by her Vanguard accounts, without interference.

The FBI stepped in and intercepted a courier they believe is part of the ring (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

At one point, the feds nearly disrupted the scheme while it was in progress, according to the complaint, which says that on July 4, AV1 was contacted by two agents with another, unnamed, federal law enforcement agency.

The agents told AV1 that she may be the victim of fraud, the complaint says. However, AV1 was suspicious of the agents, and doubted they were legit, the complaint states. When she informed Lewis about the interaction, he told AV1 that “he knew about the agents, and everything was under control, causing AV1 to continue making gold bar purchases at his direction,” according to the complaint.

Throughout the rest of the summer, AV1 kept buying gold bars at Lewis’ direction, completing the transactions through various online gold vendors, the complaint says, After the gold arrived at AV1’s home, Lewis instructed her to text him photographs of the bars and packing slips, then repackage them in either Christmas or birthday wrapping paper while he watched via videolink.

Almost immediately after that was done, Lewis would provide AV1 with a password to confirm with a courier who would arrive shortly thereafter, according to the complaint. It says Lewis would generally stay on the line with AV1 until the handoff had been completed.

The couriers were not from UPS, FedEx or the US Postal Service, and always dressed in regular attire, the complaint states. Each time, the courier would take the package of gold bars, sometime after which Lewis emailed AV1 “what purported to be a U.S. Treasury check for the value of the gold bars.”

Things came to a head during the early days of October, according to the complaint. On October 1, AV1 bought $462,398 worth of gold, at Lewis’s command. Only this time, AV1 happened to tell her son about it. The next day, the son walked his parents into the FBI’s Portland Field Office to report they had been taken for “a total loss of over $3,000,000 in gold,” the complaint says.

The fraudsters told AV1 to wrap up the gold bars in Christmas paper before handing it over (ITV This Morning)

From there, the FBI set a trap for “Lewis,” who knew AV1 was expecting a fresh shipment of gold bars in the next three to four days, according to the complaint. Agents told AV1 to let Lewis know the gold would be arriving on October 4, and that he should arrange to have a courier pick it up.

The FBI agents told AV1 to proceed as normal, taking pictures for Lewis of the five one-kilo gold bars and three 100-gram gold bars she had received, texting them to him, then repackaging them on video. Lewis told AV1 to put the gold in two separate boxes wrapped in Christmas paper, with the white side facing out, the complaint says. At the same time, the FBI told the couple’s son to prepare two decoy packages, which would look identical to the ones on video, but without any gold inside.

That afternoon, Lewis called AV1 and said the courier was outside, telling her the password was ‘Richard,” according to the complaint. The FBI agents on the scene spotted a rented Kia Soul making its way down the driveway, and a man parked and approached AV1 and AV2’s front door.

AV1 asked him for the password, to which the man replied, “Richard,” and AV1 handed him the two decoy boxes.

“After Lin gained possession of the boxes and began to walk away from the house, FBI Agents moved in and placed him in custody,” the complaint states. “As FBI Agents engaged with Lin, Lin refused to acknowledge any understanding of the English language.”

Through a Mandarin interpreter, the complaint says Lin told the FBI he had been “randomly approached by an unknown Asian man about a week ago in a New York City library,” and offered $200 “to fly somewhere to pick something up, and he agreed.” Agents found a Delta boarding pass for a flight from Atlanta to Spokane, where Lin said he had flown into the day before and that he had driven straight to Portland, according to the complaint.

“Concealed in Lin’s jacket was $5,000 in the form of 50 crisp one-hundred-dollar bills, and Agents found $1,394 in cash in his wallet,” the complaint concludes. “Lin advised he had not yet been paid for making this pick up, as he was supposed to be paid afterward. According to Lin, he had to pay for the car rental and flight on his own.”

No further information is available in court documents, and no date has been set for Lin’s arraignment. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison on each count.