Police hunt for gang selling fake gold

Jewelers enticed with claims of discovery of coins buried under old buildings

NOORPUR THAL:

The police are gathering evidence to arrest the members of a gang involved in fleecing jewelers and other people in different areas of the province by selling them fake gold.

According to local officials, the gang contacts the jewelers of remote areas and one or two members of the gang show them some real gold coins, claiming that poor people had found them during excavation of an old house.

When the buyers are satisfied that the gold shown to them is genuine, the members of the gang claim having coins weighing several kilogrammes of the same quality. The group contacts the jewelers several days after visiting their shop and asks them to reach an agreed place with money to buy the gold.

When the victims reach the spot, they are taken to some other place where members of gang present in a car show them some more coins. After receiving Rs700,000 to Rs800,000, they hand over a bag full of fake gold coins and immediately leave the place.

A number of people have lost their savings in similar frauds in recent months.

A few days ago, a jeweler from Khanewal was looted by members of the group near Silanwali of Rs700,000.

The group operates in such a manner that the victims themselves pay the money without keeping any evidence of the payment due to greed.

A leader of a jewelers’ association, Haji Mohammad Ashraf, said that in order to avoid such frauds, a jeweler should buy or sell gold at his shop and acquire the mobile phone number and a copy of the national identity card from every person who visits him to sell gold in front of a witness.

In another recent incident of fraud in the Sarafa market of Sargodha, a gold piece of 10 tola was sold with the claim that it was from Dubai, but when it was checked, layers of copper were found in it.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, November 30^th, 2020.