A 79-year-old widow in Michigan received an out-of-the-blue call informing her that her Social Security funds were being misused to support terrorism, and to stop this she was asked to purchase $700,000 in gold and deliver it to whoever they sent. An old script designed to drain a man’s savings, but here enters Ben Soldat, the owner of Grand Rapids coins, from whom the widow wants to buy gold. Soldaat knew it was a scam and alerted authorities. When the man who was supposed to rescue the woman from a “terrorism scam” arrived to collect the money, he was handed a bag of chocolate gold coins and ended up with a pair of 20-year felonies.The incident occurred in May. According to reports, the young man’s name is Yug B Chauhan, 20 years old, with an address in Illinois. Chauhan is being held in the Kent County Jail on a $100,000 ICE bond.The widow told police that the man who called her had a nice voice and that he had somehow convinced her that her money was being used to fund terrorists. “It was really devastating to realize how easily I could be fooled by these scammers,” she said.
Alert shop owner says he saw red flags
Soldat, who has run his own store since 2000, said he saw red flags, although the widow did not tell him why so many gold coins were needed. The woman said she wanted to buy the gold as an investment for her children, but she showed little interest in the product, Soldat said. Soldat said the woman looked confused and was in a hurry to get her gold medal. The woman sent the money to Soldat, but Soldat stalled and saw the woman getting agitated by the delay. “I feel like she was really forced to come up with a lot of gold quickly and not for the reasons she originally mentioned,” Soldat said. “Someone was pushing her in a direction she didn’t want to go.”Soldat said he contacted police as a precaution. After Soldat told police about the woman, police went to her home. The woman told them a Social Security agent had contacted her. She also recounted what he said. Even while detectives were at her home, a caller who identified himself as Eric called the woman to ask if she had gotten the gold.The police decided to send an undercover agent to find the courier. The agent dresses like an old woman and delivers a bag of gold chocolates, and Yug is arrested.Yug said a man named “Bhawsh” instructed him to have an Uber driver take him from the gas station to the donut shop to pick up the delivery. He said he had never met the person who gave him the instructions, who spoke mainly in Hindi during the call and mostly communicated through WhatsApp.
