Outsmarted: Lured by swindlers, traders find fool’s gold

Travel to Faisalabad to purchase ‘treasure’, only to discover its real value upon their return.

ABBOTABAD: About a week back, Sajjad, a local stationery shop owner, received a phone call from Nadeem from Faisalabad. Nadeem, who worked at Sajjad’s shop a few years back, told the latter he had friends who possessed a treasure of ancient gold coins and were willing to sell them at cheap rates.

Sajjad’s daughter was going to get married in November and he took this as a golden opportunity to double his fortunes. He said he discussed the matter with his friends, including two goldsmiths, who also agreed to accompany him to Faisalabad.



“On the invitation of Nadeem, we all reached Faisalabad city where he met us at the designated point and took us to a desolate location on Samandri Road where the coin owners were sitting in the bushes,” narrated Sajjad.

The coin traders showed them sacks full of ancient coins covered with rust and offered them to choose from any sack. Each coin weighed about 2 grammes, measured half an inch in width and one inch in length and bore the portrait of a woman carrying a lamp.

“We selected sacks on our own, chose and picked a few coins from each sack and took them to goldsmiths in Faisalabad and Abbottabad, all of whom confirmed the genuineness of the gold,” disclosed Sheikh Parvez alias Poomi, a local trader of grocery items.

Parvez said the coin dealers were selling the coins at Rs200,000 per kilogramme, adding he and his friends bought five kilogrammes while Sajjad and his friends bought between three to five kilogrammes.



Over a dozen buyers purchased the coins the same day, while many others procured them on the second and third days of their visit. Shahrukh, another victim, said he also helped the dealers cross a police check post with the coins.

However, dreams of an easy fortune came crashing for the traders soon after they returned home.

When they brought the coins to Hazara and checked them by themselves or took them to local goldsmiths to sell, they were all shocked to learn that the coins were neither of gold, nor metal that could be used for jewellry. Instead, it was metal that had no market value.

Shahrukh said there were dozens of local traders and jewelers in Hazara who were defrauded by these coin swindlers, but everyone remained silent despite losing their hard earned money.

Naveed, a local goldsmith, said nobody but the buyers could be accused of fraud. “Even if the coins were genuine, it was a crime to purchase them,” echoed Shaukat, a local jeweller, adding goldsmiths are often tricked by swindlers each time they violate the rules and law of the land.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 8^th, 2013.