Radnor police are warning older residents about a scam that has already cost two elderly victims more than $3 million combined. One of them, a 90-year-old woman, was told by phone in October 2024 that her money had been compromised and that she needed to buy gold to protect her retirement.
Brian Bell, a Radnor police officer, said the message was delivered as if it came from the Social Security Administration. He said the woman was told to photograph the gold, repackage it and wait for a courier to come to her house and pick it up. By the end, Bell said, the account she had transferred everything from was pretty much drained. A few months later, a Radnor man reported a similar scam and lost $86,000 before calling police. Police said the man was first contacted through Facebook.
The numbers show how far the scheme went. Investigators said nine similar transactions took place from February to August of last year, and at the time of the report police said the two victims had lost more than $3 million combined. The first victim was 90, while the man was 78. Both lived alone, and police said neither had adult children.
That made them easier marks for a fraud that relied on urgency, isolation and a false badge of authority. Police said the criminals reached victims online or by phone, claimed to be government workers and told them their financial accounts had been compromised. Detectives believe the network is operating out of an India call center, using couriers to collect the gold. In some cases, police said, victims are told to leave the gold in the back seat of their car in the driveway, and both the courier and the victim are given a password to say to each other.
Chris Flanagan, a Radnor official, said the scope of the losses is jolting and the victims are the kind of people anyone could picture close to home. He said this kind of case is serious because elderly victims may not know how to respond once the money is gone. Police are still urging residents to be suspicious of any caller who says an account has been compromised and asks for cash, gold or secrecy.
