Be warned of people pretending to be in trouble offering gold in exchange for cash.
Washington State Police Warn of New Roadside Scam
There have been multiple reports of individuals aggressively waving drivers down, then asking for help and asking for cash in exchange for fake gold jewelry. The latest account happened on Tuesday in Bellevue, Washington near the Eastgate neighborhood. As a driver was exiting I-90 onto 150th, he encountered two people waving their hands for him to stop in the road. They claimed their car was out of gas and offered gold jewelry in exchange for some gas money. The victim then drove with them to a nearby ATM, withdrew an undisclosed amount of cash, and gave it to the suspects in exchange for the “gold jewelry”. They gave the victim a fake phone number and told the victim to hold onto the gold jewelry until they called and bought it back. Of course the “gold jewelry” was fake.
This was just 1 of 8 Incidents Near Bellevue in 2023
There have been 8 incidents so far this year around Washington State with victims telling very similar stories of getting taken advantage of by exchanging cash for fake gold jewelry. Even though most of these reports are near Bellevue, these individuals are most likely acting in other parts of the state as well. So far there have been no descriptions released by authorities of the two individuals, but police warn about buying jewelry from any unknown person. If you encounter someone offering to trade gold jewelry or items in exchange for cash, do not give them money. Instead, police want you to just drive away and call 911 when you are in a safe place. You can read the entire report by clicking here.