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Vipul J. Thakkar, 52, of Owings Mills, was taken into custody on Wednesday, July 24 after his 74-year-old victim alerted the authorities about a possible scammer who had been targeting him.
According to the Montgomery County Department of Police, earlier this month, a Bethesda man contacted them to advise he believed he had been scammed after seeing local news reports of a woman being bilked out of nearly $1 million in a similar scam.
Police say that the victim reported that he received an email stating that a suspicious deposit had been made into the man's bank account and an unknown suspect instructed the victim to convert his money into gold to protect his assets.
On 10 separate occasions between March and June, the elderly man purchased a total of more than $1.1 million dollars in gold bars and arranged to have the gold picked up by Thakkar's associates, investigators added.
After making a final purchase of more than $240,000 in gold bars, the man saw the news report, contacted the police, and set up a sting operation.
A detective posing as Thakkar's victim arranged a pick-up at the home, and handed him a package. Thakkar then got into a car and drove away, when officers stopped and arrested him.
Thakkar was charged with multiple counts of attempted theft.
He is being held without bond.
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