NY State Police Warn Residents About Gold and Crypto Scams
Scammers are building trust online, promising big returns and convincing victims to surrender savings, cryptocurrency and even gold bars.
New York State Police are warning residents about gold and crypto scams that can begin with an innocent-looking text message or online conversation and end with victims losing much of their life savings.
In a public service announcement issued Aug. 7, State Police Troop E said scammers are increasingly persuading people — particularly older adults — to withdraw cash, liquidate savings, buy gold bars or coins, or transfer cryptocurrency as part of fraudulent investment schemes.
The warning reflects a much larger national problem. The FBI reported that Americans who filed complaints involving cryptocurrency lost more than $11 billion in 2025, while Americans over age 60 reported about $7.7 billion in overall fraud losses.
How Gold and Crypto Scams Begin
According to State Police, these schemes often start through:
- An unsolicited text message
- A social media message
- An online friendship
- A supposed investment opportunity
- Someone claiming to have special cryptocurrency expertise
The initial conversation may not include a request for money.
Instead, scammers can spend days or weeks developing a relationship with the victim before introducing what they describe as a highly profitable investment opportunity.
That slow approach is important because it makes the scheme feel more like advice from a trusted acquaintance than a traditional scam.
Eventually, victims may be directed to websites or apps that appear to show their investment increasing dramatically in value.
The displayed profits may be fake.
Scammers Are Asking Victims to Buy Gold
One of the more troubling parts of the warning involves physical gold.
State Police said some scammers are instructing victims to purchase gold bars or coins from legitimate local dealers. After the purchase, victims may be told to give the precious metal to a courier or ship it to an address controlled by the criminals.
Once the gold is handed over, recovering it can be extremely difficult.
The FBI has documented similar schemes nationally.
In a previous warning, the FBI said criminals impersonating government officials, financial institutions or technology companies had persuaded victims — many of them seniors — to convert their assets into cash, gold or other precious metals. Couriers were then sent to collect those assets.
The FBI has also warned in 2026 about scammers using couriers to collect cash from victims involved in fraudulent cryptocurrency investment schemes.
Police: These Requests Are Major Warning Signs
State Police stressed that legitimate financial institutions, government agencies and law enforcement organizations do not operate this way.
Residents should be suspicious if someone tells them to:
- Purchase gold bars or coins and give them to another person
- Hand cash or precious metals to a courier
- Transfer cryptocurrency to supposedly “protect” their money
- Keep an investment secret from relatives
- Hide transactions from a bank
- Lie to bank employees about why money is being withdrawn
- Move money immediately because of an alleged emergency
Those requests should be treated as serious warning signs.
The FBI similarly advises consumers to resist pressure to act immediately when someone requests money or personal information.
Its advice is simple: “Take a Beat.”
That brief pause can give someone enough time to contact a relative, bank employee or law enforcement agency before transferring money.
Older Americans Are Losing Billions
The financial consequences of these scams can be enormous.
According to the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report:
- Americans filed more than 1 million internet crime complaints
- Reported losses approached $21 billion
- Cryptocurrency-related complaints produced more than $11 billion in reported losses
- People age 60 and older reported approximately $7.7 billion in fraud losses
- Investment fraud accounted for nearly half of cyber-enabled scam losses
The FBI reported separately that more than 42,000 people over age 60 reported scams involving cryptocurrency in 2025, resulting in approximately $4.3 billion in losses.
Those numbers also show why families should avoid assuming that only inexperienced internet users fall for sophisticated fraud.
The FBI recently described a case involving an accomplished criminology professor who lost more than $500,000 after becoming the victim of a scam.
FBI Special Agent Ron Miller said the case demonstrated that nearly anyone can become a target.
“Almost anyone can be a victim,” Miller said.
Why These Scams Can Be Convincing
Modern financial scams often rely more on psychology than technology.
Criminals may build trust before they ask for money. They may impersonate banks, police officers, investment advisers, government agencies or technology companies.
They can also create realistic-looking investment dashboards showing profits that do not actually exist.
Some criminals attempt to isolate victims by telling them that family members, bank employees or authorities cannot be trusted.
That should immediately raise concern.
Legitimate investments do not require secrecy from your family or dishonesty with your bank.
What to Do if Someone Contacts You
Anyone receiving a suspicious investment request should avoid sending money immediately.
A safer response is to:
- Stop communicating with the person.
- Do not transfer cryptocurrency or send additional money.
- Do not give gold, cash or valuables to a courier.
- Contact your bank or financial institution.
- Tell a trusted family member or friend what happened.
- Save text messages, emails, phone numbers and transaction information.
- Report suspected internet fraud to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center at IC3.gov.
- Contact New York State Police or local law enforcement if you believe you have been victimized.
These steps follow recommendations from State Police and the FBI.
Don’t Assume Caller ID Proves Who Is Calling
Another important protection is independently verifying anyone claiming to represent a government agency, bank or police department.
Telephone numbers can be spoofed.
New York State Police have previously warned that scammers can make a call appear to originate from a police agency even when it does not. Police also emphasized that law enforcement will not call residents and demand cryptocurrency, gift cards or cash to avoid arrest.
If someone claims to represent an organization, hang up and locate that organization’s official telephone number yourself rather than calling a number supplied by the person contacting you.
Families Can Help Prevent Financial Fraud
Financial fraud prevention should become a family conversation, particularly when older relatives manage retirement savings or significant investments.
Families can agree on a simple rule:
No major financial transfer triggered by an unsolicited phone call, text message or online relationship should occur without talking to someone trusted first.
That extra conversation may feel unnecessary when an opportunity appears legitimate.
But once cryptocurrency is transferred, cash is surrendered or gold is placed in the hands of a courier, getting those assets back may be difficult or impossible.
The Bottom Line
The New York State Police warning about gold and crypto scams deserves attention because these crimes are not simply irritating spam messages.
They can wipe out decades of savings.
Residents should be especially cautious when a stranger offers unusually high investment returns, pressures them to act quickly or instructs them to conceal a transaction.
Before withdrawing thousands of dollars, buying gold or moving cryptocurrency, stop and verify.
And families should share this warning with parents, grandparents, friends and neighbors.
A five-minute conversation today could prevent someone from losing a lifetime of savings tomorrow.
