An 84-year-old Fort Worth resident says a slick phone scam drained nearly $600,000 in savings she had carefully put away over the years, after callers claiming to be FBI agents talked her into pulling cash from local banks, turning it into gold bars and handing it off to a stranger in a parking lot.
Ann Reed, 84, told reporters the handoff took place near a closed Wendy’s off Golden Triangle Boulevard, where she says she passed over the gold to a courier who arrived just as the fake agents on the phone said he would. By the time she checked her accounts, she says the money was gone and the accounts were closed.
Reed says the first unsolicited call came in May, from a man who introduced himself as “FBI agent Richard Williams,” according to WFAA. The outlet reports that the scammers used what appeared to be official-looking warrants and badges to convince her that her money was in danger, then directed her to move funds between banks in Fort Worth and Keller and convert that cash into gold bars…