82-year-old woman scammed out of nearly $1M in Montgomery County 'gold bar scam'

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Md. — Another person was arrested for taking part in what Montgomery County officials are calling the 'gold bar scam."

The scam has bilked people of hundreds of thousands of dollars. To date, in Montgomery County there have been a total of 19 victims. Montgomery County officials said this time, the scam started with a pop up add on a computer.

The 82-year-old woman was scammed out of almost $1 million of her life savings.

Zhenyong Weng, 19, of New York, is behind bars for his alleged involvement in the gold bar scam.

Weng was out on bond from New York for a violent crime involving a handgun. Montgomery County officials said he drove to Maryland from Brooklyn to commit the crime.

Officials said the scam usually starts with a phone call from someone claiming to be a federal agent protecting your money.

The scammers convince the victims that the only way to keep their money is to convert it to gold and hand it over to a U.S. Treasury agent.

The entire scenario is fake.

“If you are a senior, do not click on pop up adds. That was the beginning of what led to the theft in this case,” Montgomery County State's Attorney John McCarthy said. 

McCarthy said the woman first charged her card for $44,000. She was told it would buy her a software device to protect her from Russian hackers.

Then the woman bought $900,000 worth of gold and handed it over Weng.

“They told her take all the cash you have and buy gold bars and hand them over, we will come pick them up and we will hold them for safe keeping,” McCarthy said.

McCarthy said the $900,000 is practically untraceable.

Investigators believe numerous organizations are pursuing the same scam.