Two Indian men seen being detained by the police in Ohio in connection with a huge gold scam.
In March this year, the Westlake Police Department in Ohio conducted an undercover operation after a 78-year-old woman became a victim of a gold scam, and arrested two suspects who were working as couriers. At that time, they were referred to as two Pennsylvania men, but now, as footage from the arrest day has been released, they have been identified as Manan Shah and Ankit Gupta.
Meticulous scam that went on for months
The scam began around August 2025 when the victim, the old woman, saw a pop-up on her home computer claiming that he system was hacked and was provided a number of an FBI agent. Without any suspicion, the woman called the number and was told an elaborate story involving cyber attacks, compromised accounts, international investigations and even the death of an undercover agent. The woman later said she genuinely believed that she was speaking to an FBI agent and they advised her to withdraw money, buy gold for “safekeeping” by the government. While this is now a well-known scam in the US, the woman said she got terrified that her family would be affected and that her accounts would be frozen.Couriers (posing as federal agents) repeatedly picked up the gold from her Westlake home. She lost nearly $200,000 in real gold before police involvement. In March 2026, the woman reported the scam as the gold shop became curious, and also the woman was told that she had to give 80% equity from her 401 (K) account.Detectives took over her communications/electronics, arranged another scheduled gold pickup using imitation/fake gold, forged receipts, and photos to maintain the illusion. Drones were deployed to track the car of the couriers, and two men were arrested without any incident.In the interrogation video, the names of the two couriers were revealed to be Manan Shah and Ankit Gupta. They said they did not know anything about the scam and they were just sent to collect the parcel.
