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The Times of India
The Times of India
World
TOI World Desk

Indian fraudster caught by alert store owner in Michigan, gets golden chocolate coins instead of $700k gold

A 79-year-old widow in Michigan received a sudden phone call informing her that her Social Security funds were being misused to support terrorism, and to stop that, she was asked to buy $700,000 in gold and give it to a person they would send. An old script to polish off one's savings but here entered Ben Soldaat, the owner of Grand Rapids Coins, from whom the widow wanted to purchase the gold. Soldaat knew it was a scam and alerted the authorities. When the man who was supposed to rescue the woman from the 'terrorism scam' arrived to collect the money, he got a bag of chocolate gold coins and eventually a pair of 20-year felonies.

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