A New York man is charged with scamming a Newton senior out of nearly half a million dollars over the holidays, in a scheme almost too elaborate to comprehend.

In December, according to Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan’s office, the victim—a 72-year-old Newton woman—got a phone call from people claiming to be with the Drug Enforcement Agency telling her someone had opened 22 accounts in her name as part of an illegal narcotics operation.

The caller told the woman that to protect her identity she would have to transfer all of her money to the Treasury (with Treasury checks they would provide) and, if she didn’t, the FBI would arrest her.

“Fearing arrest, over the next month, the victim liquidated hundreds of thousands of dollars from her retirement account to purchase gold bars,” a statement from Ryan’s office reads.

A separate scammer called pretending to be her case manager, who directed her to buy gold bars and deliver them to couriers, who were also part of the scam.

“On Dec. 17, she delivered 12 bars of gold worth approximately $342,000 and then again on Dec. 24, she delivered three bars of gold worth approximately $88,955.43,” a statement from Ryan’s office reads. “On Dec. 26, the victim also wired $49,755 to a bank account at the direction of the scammers. The victim was instructed that her gold would be secured by Treasury checks.  Although she was sent images from the “agents,” which they represented to be Treasury checks, the victim ultimately lost over $480,000.”

After the victim’s family learned what was happening, they notified law enforcement.

Police carried out a sting operation, with an undercover officer posing as the victim delivering what was supposed to be $165,000 in gold bars to Vishal Kumar, 23, of Queens, N.Y.

Once Kumar confirmed the code-word given to the victim by the imposter posing as a federal agent on the phone and took possession of the package, Newton police detectives arrested him.

“This elaborate scheme illustrates several common aspects of these financial scams,” Ryan said. “The defendant and his alleged co-conspirators used multiple points of contact to build trust, they posed as official government agents, assigned a ‘case worker’ in an effort to appear helpful to the victim and even created fake documents to serve as receipts.”

Kumar’s next date in this case is April 2 for scheduling.

“These scams thrive in secrecy,” Ryan said. “Fortunately, in this case, the victim and her family were able to enlist the help of law enforcement within a fairly short period of time, which put a stop to this exploitation, but not before the victim suffered a staggering loss of nearly half a million dollars.”