Hempfield woman loses $70,000 in social security scam

A Hempfield woman was scammed out of $70,000 after state police said she was led to believe she was under investigation by the Social Security Administration for money laundering and drug sales.

“This was part of an elaborate scheme to defraud our elders and is likely not the only case,” Trooper Ryan Ilich said in a news release issued Thursday.

Trooper Steve Limani said the woman was contacted by phone by a person who requested she buy several thousand dollars worth of Visa prepaid cards to settle the supposed investigation. The scammers upped the ante and asked her to buy thousands of dollars worth of gold bars.

Limani said the woman was instructed to mail half of the bars and provide the other half to a runner she met in a Greensburg parking lot. He advised anyone who receives a similar call to be wary.

“Call us immediately to find out if it’s real or not,” he said.

Investigative agencies are not going to ask for payments of any kind.

“The second someone asks you for a Visa prepaid card, it is over,” Limani said.

The U.S. Office of the Inspector General issued a warning in March about a rise in scams involving people impersonating Social Security Administration agents. Officials cautioned that they will never request money or ask that someone purchase gold bars.

In a recent situation, one elderly person handed over $2 million in gold bars to a person who claimed to be a CIA agent, said Michelle L. Anderson, assistant inspector general for audit who is performing the duties of the Inspector General for the Social Security Administration.

Anyone who has experienced a similar scam locally is asked to contact state police at 724-832-3288.