Budapest family arrested for multi-million forint gold scam targeting elderly

Three members of a family, aged 28, 50, and 53, have been arrested in Budapest for operating an illegal gold-buying business in Újbuda that defrauded elderly victims of hundreds of millions of forints.

The suspects allegedly lured customers with offers well above market value before using various deceptive and coercive tactics. In one instance, a 71-year-old man was allegedly given an unknown substance that caused him to lose consciousness, after which his gold jewelry worth over 10 million forints disappeared.

In another case, suspects reportedly tricked an elderly man into signing a life annuity agreement under the guise of inheritance proceedings, allowing them to acquire a property valued at approximately 145 million forints. Other methods included melting down gold bars and claiming they were of poor quality to justify paying only a fraction of the promised price. Investigators have seized nearly 200 million forints worth of gold.