Man charged with scamming Madison County senior out of retirement savings
An Illinois man faces criminal charges for swindling an older Edwardsville resident out of thousands of dollars in retirement savings in a kind of scam the local police chief said has become too common.
Ligneshkumar Patel, a 37-year-old Des Plaines resident, allegedly took $148,000 worth of gold Krugerrand coins from a 73-year-old Edwardsville woman on March 9 after she had been instructed to purchase them with retirement funds in a deceptive scheme, according to court documents filed in the Madison County Circuit Court on May 13. Krugerrand is a South African coin.
Edwardsville Police Chief Michael Fillback said the victim reported the incident to the police department on April 2.
The scam started when she received an email from what appeared to be PayPal saying she needed to contact them for some kind of identity fraud, he said. She contacted the number — which was the scammer’s and not PayPal — and went through a “lengthy process” with them scamming her out of money.
They instructed the victim to use retirement account funds to purchase gold, according to court documents. She then purchased $148,000 worth of the gold coins, which she was then instructed to give to an individual who came to her residence. She was given a false security code that was confirmed by the individual.
Patel was the “middleman” in the scam who picked up the money and distributed it to higher-ups, Fillback said. He was arrested by the police department in Plymouth, Wisconsin, after he was caught scamming a victim there.
Patel will eventually be transported to Madison County, Fillback said.
Patel has been charged with two counts of theft. The first is a class one felony for stealing property valued between $100-500K. The second is a class two felony for stealing property valued over $5K from a person over the age of 60 through deceptive means.
How to avoid similar scams
These scams are unfortunately too common, Fillback said, and it’s not just elderly people who are targeted.
“They basically utilize these scams on just about anybody that will fall victim to them,” he said.
Fillback advised scrutinizing any phone calls, emails or pop-ups on your computer or phone that are questionable.
If you do get a questionable phone call, email or pop-up, hang up or exit out of it and verify the information directly with the relevant agency. For example, if you get an email appearing to be from your insurance company, call your local agent or find a good phone number for the company outside of the email to confirm its legitimacy.
Fillback said that sometimes scammers call pretending to be the police department. They say they’re a police officer with a warrant for you and that if you don’t do what they ask they’ll come to your house.
“If you get a call like that, it’s a scam. If we have a warrant for your arrest and we know where you live, we’ll come knock on your door, and we’ll be in uniform,” he said.
“You have to look out for those high-pressure kind of things where somebody’s demanding that you get money right away, that you don’t tell anybody,” Fillback added. “Those are all signs that basically somebody’s trying to scam you.”
He also said you shouldn’t give your personal information — like account numbers, social security number and address — to anybody that you have not solicited on your own.
This story was originally published May 17, 2024 at 2:14 PM.
