FRIENDSWOOD, TX — Friendswood police say they have broken up a gold scam that began with calls to an elderly Texas resident and ended with arrests in California. Three men — Daman Preet Singh, Mandeep Singh, and Sukhvinder Singh — are accused of posing as federal employees and pressuring the victim to turn large sums of cash into gold.
The investigation started in August 2026, when the resident contacted police after becoming suspicious about the callers. Detectives say the case quickly grew beyond a single phone scam and revealed a coordinated scheme that used fake identities, misleading instructions, and a plan to collect gold packages through a FedEx store.
Police say the victim was pushed to convert money into gold
According to Friendswood police, the suspects tried to convince the victim to convert large lump sums of money into gold as part of the scheme. Officials say the men presented themselves as federal authorities, a tactic meant to create urgency and pressure the resident into following their instructions.
Investigators say the victim’s concern in August 2026 helped stop the scam from moving forward without scrutiny. Once the call was reported, officers began tracing the operation and working with the victim to better understand how the suspects were operating…