A 79-year-old Colorado woman was scammed out of more than $120,000 after someone who she thought was a federal agent told her to buy gold bars.

The scam began in July when a pop-up appeared on her computer saying that she had a virus and needed to call the 888 on the screen for assistance.

The suspect who answered the call, Sagar Patel, 26, from New Jersey, told the woman he was a federal agent.

Patel told her that her bank account had been hacked and she needed to buy gold bars to fix the issue.

“The suspect instructed her to use her personal money to buy two gold bars each valued at more than $60,000 a piece,” Douglas County Colorado Sheriff Darren Weekly said according to Fox affiliate KDVR.

The scammer told her not to call the police.

A week later, the woman met Patel at a convenience store to hand over the gold bars.

The suspect allegedly told the woman that she would be reimbursed with a check, which she never received, according to police.

While at the convenience store, the woman took the Patel’s rental car license plate number.

She then called her bank and alerted police about the possible scammer.

Police spent seven months digging through phone records, credit card records, and surveillance cameras to track down Patel who had gone back to New Jersey, according to a police report.

He was arrested and extradited back to Colorado to face charges.

Patel has been charged with theft of more than $100,000 and less than $1 million as well as crimes against an at-risk person, according to NJ.com.

Patel is currently being held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and his next court date is scheduled for March 21, a Douglas County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman said on Monday.

The elderly community continues to be targeted by scammers.

“We need to make sure you don’t give out your personal information or money to strangers. We also need adults to watch out for your aging parents,” read the police report.

“They are vulnerable, the criminals know this, and we need your help to protect them.”

As of August 2023, losses from tech support scams were up 40% during the same period in 2022, according to a FBI Public Service Announcement from 2023.

It reported that almost half of the victims were over 60 years old and comprised 66% of the total financial losses.

In 2022, there were 88,262 complaints of fraud from people age 60+ resulting in $3.1 billion in losses, according to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, reported by the National Council of Aging.