Ithaca, N.Y. — A scammer from New Jersey convinced an elderly Tompkins County resident to hand over $500,000 in gold bars, state police said.

On Wednesday, Akash B. Thakkar, 41, of Hiawatha, New Jersey, was arrested and charged with second-degree grand larceny after scamming a person in their 80s out of $500,000, according to Trooper Aga Tinker, a spokesperson for State Police.

The scam began when the victim received a phone call from someone asking if they had made a large purchase on Amazon, troopers said. When the victim said they hadn’t, the scammer told them their identity and Social Security number had been stolen.

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