A 79-year-old widow from the Grand Rapids area nearly lost $700,000 in life savings after scammers allegedly convinced her to convert her money into gold. A quick-thinking coin dealer in Kent County helped stop the scheme before the gold ever changed hands. The incident unfolded at Grand Rapids Coins on 10 Mile Road NE in Rockford, a community northeast of Grand Rapids in western Michigan.
According to local reporting from WOOD-TV, scammers called the unidentified woman and claimed that authorities had linked her Social Security number to terrorism, money laundering, and drug crimes. The woman then wired hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase gold, but the store owner, Ben Soldaat, noticed something was wrong.
