Staff report
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Gurpinder Singh, 20, of French Camp, California, was arrested yesterday in Gainesville for his alleged role in a scam to steal almost $500k in gold from an elderly woman; Gainesville Police Department assisted the FBI and the IRS in the investigation, and Alachua County Sheriff’s (ASO) Deputies assisted in the apprehension of Singh.
On May 22, a Gainesville Police Department (GPD) detective was contacted by agents from the FBI and IRS after they identified an elderly woman who had been targeted by a scam. The victim told these agents that she had received an email that looked like it was from Amazon, indicating that there was a problem with her Campus USA account. She called the phone number in the email, where “John Harris” told her that her identity had been stolen and her Social Security number was compromised. He transferred her to another number, where she spoke to “Michael Chappel,” who had a “heavy Hindi accent” and said he was an agent with the Federal Trade Commission; “Michael” instructed her to withdraw money from her credit union account and purchase gold bars…