Gold Scam Targets Chinese Montgomery County Residents: Police

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD — Montgomery County police are searching for two men who they believe executed two "gold scams" in the county. In these scams, victims think they're paying for real gold, but are instead left with valueless, fake gold. A Montgomery County resident recently lost $20,000 in this scam, police said.

Police say they have warrants for Yinhui Huang, 51, and Xiaoping Yang (also known as Ziaoping Yang), 49, of undetermined addresses. The two men were also charged in Fairfax County for the same scam.

Police describe this scam as an affinity fraud, meaning a type of financial scheme that relies on building trust with victims based on shared affiliations and characteristics such as age, race, religion, occupation, etc.

In the gold scam, the suspects typically work to build trust with victims who are of Chinese descent, police said. The scammers are Chinese and often work in a group to contact the potential victims, also of Chinese descent, via phone. The incoming call to the victim often shows a phone number originating from China.

The scammer, speaking in a Chinese dialect, tells the victim that he needs their help finding a job for someone or needing some other type of support, police said. The scammers arrange to meet the victim to receive help and presents the victim with what the scammers state is real gold (comprised of gold nuggets and Buddha figures) that they say they located while working construction, police said.

One of the suspects then tells the victim that he is undocumented, has no connections in the U.S. and wants to sell the gold and use the money to return to China or help his family in China. The scammer asks that the victim provide the scammer with cash and in return, he will give the victim all of the gold, police said. The scammer states that he will take less than what the gold is worth.

If the victim requests it, the scammer will provide him/her with a small gold “sample” to be tested, which is often real. At the end of the final transaction between the scammer and victim, the victim is left with worthless, fake gold and the scammer now has the victim’s cash, police said.

Police said there has been two reports of gold scams in Montgomery County. The first incident took place in late April and the resident gave the suspects $20,000 in cash for the gold, which was tested and determined to be fake, police said.

In the second incident reported to the MCPD, which occurred on June 11, the potential victim became suspicious of the suspects and before conducting any type of exchange she searched articles online and learned that this was a scam, police said. She then reported the incident to MCPD.

Detectives have obtained photographs of the two male suspects in this case. The photographs are from a Gaithersburg restaurant where the two suspects and victim talked about the gold while eating lunch.

The Financial Crimes Section is asking that anyone who recognizes the two unknown suspects (photographs above) or anyone with information about the whereabouts of suspects Ziapong and Huang to call detectives at 240-773-6330. For those who wish to remain anonymous, Crime Solvers of Montgomery County is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for any information that leads to the arrest of the two unknown suspect(s). Tipsters can call Crime Solvers of Montgomery County toll-free at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477). Anyone who believes he/she has been a victim of this scam is asked to call detectives at 240-773-6330.

Photos: Montgomery County Police Department