Man conned into buying fake gold for Rs2.5m

A man has complained in an FIR that a person conned him into buying three kilogrammes of fake gold for Rs2.5 million, which turned out to be a cheap metal.

Samundri Saddar police registered the case. The complainant, Haroon, said the accused Ibrahim had told him over the phone that he had 3kgs of gold, which he had found during excavation.

Haroon, a resident of Peshawar Ring Road, told the police that accused Ibrahim asked him to buy the gold from him.

He said the accused was a resident of Chak 476 GB.

The complainant said he came from Peshawar on June 13 to check the gold.

The accused Ibrahim demanded Rs2.5 million for the gold and on July 16, when Haroon gave him the agreed amount in the village, he took the money and handed him a bag. The complainant said that when he checked the bag, he found that it contained a cheap metal instead of gold. Meanwhile, the accused had fled from the scene.

Despite the registration of the FIR in the police station, the accused could not be traced yet.

Stories of finding ancient treasures during excavations are centuries old but in the modern times also many people fall prey to counterfeiters and fraudsters using the same ploy.

It is believed that in the days of partition, many wealthy families took whatever goods they could find before moving away and left the rest of the valuables, most of which were jewelry, gold coins and gold and silver utensils.

However, most of such stories have proven to be false.

In this regard, RPO Faisalabad Raja Rifat Mukhtar told The Express Tribune that such fraudulent groups have some real gold items which are shown at the time of the transaction to assure the buyer. He said the buyers, including jewelers, are trapped through phone calls.

After receiving the required amount, he said, they flee before the victims check the goods. So far, 21 cases of fraud in the name of the discovery of treasure have been registered in different police stations of the Faisalabad region, including Muridwala, and Kamalia Police Station.

The RPO said the accused in two out of 21 cases have been traced so far.

Mureedwala police had arrested three men on charges of depriving a resident of Swat of Rs2.7 million in a similar case four months back. The case was registered against Bilal, Musa and Javed. The police said the accused had confessed to contacting the victim by phone and informing him that they had found gold coins after the walls of their old house collapsed. The police claimed having recovered Rs2 million from the accused. However, the men were released after spending some time in jail.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 22^nd, 2020.