WESTLAKE — Two men are in custody after police said that they targeted a 78-year-old woman out of almost $200,000 worth of gold in Northern Ohio.
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The City of Westlake’s Police Department said in a social media post that this started in August 2025, when a woman called a fake “Apple Security” number that popped up in a red box on her computer, saying she was hacked.
The scammer who answered the phone claimed to be an FBI agent and told her a story that led the woman to believe she was “legally obligated to participate in a federal investigation,” according to the social media post.
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She was also ordered not to tell anyone.
Eventually, the woman was ordered to withdraw large amounts of money from her accounts and purchase gold coins and gold bars.
The fake agents arrived at her house to collect the almost $200,000 worth of gold and promised her it would be returned after the investigation, the social media post stated.
A business convinced the victim that she was being scammed. On March 26, she filed a police report.
Westlake officers used her electronics to agree to another gold pick-up. This time, they drew the fake agents with phony receipts and photos of realistic-looking imitation gold.
They collected the fake gold, believing they had scammed her again. But Westlake Police had cruisers, drones, and detectives watching them, the social media post said.
They found the suspects’ vehicle and arrested them.
The two suspects were charged with felony counts of theft by deception and complicity to commit theft.
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