Scammers arrange gold drop-offs, pick-ups from 90-year-old Evans woman's home

The Columbia County Sheriff's Office is investigating after a scammer reportedly stole an unknown amount of gold from a 90-year-old Evans woman.

Columbia County deputies responded to the woman's Evans home Thursday for fraud, according to an incident report. They met with authorities from Adult Protective Services, who said they were notified about potential fraud related to the elderly woman.

The woman told deputies that on July 10, she received a phone call from Xfinity saying her identity was compromised, according to the report. She was told they were required by law to notify the Federal Trade Commission and she would be receiving a phone call from them shortly.

A man claiming to be with the Federal Trade Commission called the woman, told her her identity was compromised, and said he would need remote access to her computer, according to the report. She gave him permission to access her computer and various bank accounts.

After the man viewed her accounts, he told her to transfer all of the funds into her Wells Fargo bank account, deputies noted in the report. She was then told to withdraw cash from her Wells Fargo account and deposit the funds into a Bitcoin machine at Kroger, providing her with a username and password to use.

After the woman made the deposit, she told the man she preferred using CoinMarketCap and he set up an account for her, according to the report. She transferred the cash into that account, under his provided username and password.

On July 12, the man told the woman to purchase gold from JM Bullion and she gave him access to her computer to guide her through the process, deputies noted in the report. After she made the purchase, he told her to have the gold delivered by FedEx and to provide him the tracking number.

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Once the gold was delivered by FedEx, he said he would send a driver to the woman's home to pick up the gold, according to the report. The woman was told to meet the driver on the road to avoid any recording of the pick-up from her Ring camera.

When the driver arrived, the woman would repeat a password the man gave her to the driver, and the driver would repeat a password back to the woman, deputies noted in the report.

The man instructed the elderly woman to make three more purchases of gold from JM Bullion on July 24, Aug. 3 and Aug. 13, with the same method of pickup, according to the report.

The Aug. 13 purchase of gold was not delievered by FedEx at the time deputies wrote up the report.

The case was turned over to the sheriff's office's Criminal Investigations Division.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Scammers arrange gold drop-offs, pick-ups from 90-year-old Evans woman's home