High-pressure conmen lure elderly into coin scam

A slick website, cold calls and high pressure tactics are at the heart of a coin collection scam that cost victims millions of dollars.  Here's what a high-pressure telemarketer said to an elderly victim:

Telemarketer: Let me put it to you this way, you're cutting it right down to the wire. I really want you to tell me you have the money and I say "sorry."

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Victim: I don't have the money now. But I might have it tomorrow.  That's what I'm working on.

Telemarketer:  How about you post-date a check for Friday in the event you could, cause tomorrow you might say you have it and I have to say sorry, I'm unable to keep your position, we're pushing this along here.

Telemarketer:  If you want to get a check in today and date it for Friday.
 
Victim: I can't do that.

Telemarketer:  Than you are putting yourself, you, you have been made abreast of your situation and I hope it works out for you.

In this case, investigators say Joseph Romano is trying to get an elderly man to buy more coins as an investment.  Romano told victims they needed more coins to reach the "big payoff."

"The coins were not worth anything until the collection was completed, victims paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to complete the collection," explained U.S. Postal Inspector Tom Boyle.

Romano built a boiler room of conmen who would call victims with a sense of urgency to get them to complete their collections.

Boyle explained the conmen would tell victims, "You have to buy, other collectors were interested, if you hurried up and purchase the coin today and Express Mail me the money than you would get the coins and these other investors would not get those coins."

But, those investors never existed. The calls were relentless. Some victims were urged to take out an equity line of credit,  mortgage their home or deplete their life savings. And in reality, the coins were worth only 10-20 percent of what victims paid.

"They would then try to sell to legitimate coin dealers and then found by legitimate coin dealers the collection was not worth what they thought," added Boyle.

There were more than 3,000 victims and more than $80 million in losses. As complaints came in, postal inspectors shut down the operation and arrested Romano and his co-conspirators. Romano was sentenced to 15 years for Conspiracy to Commit Mail and Wire Fraud and 3 years supervised release.

Inspectors have simple advice to help you protect yourself from a similar scheme.

"Take it to a legitimate, independent coin dealer to have it appraised. In this scheme if some of the victims would have done that earlier, they would have realized these coins were worth 10-20% of what they actually paid," said Boyle.