A recent social media alert from a user named jack_somchai reveals an alarming trend of fraudulent gold scams in Thailand involving gold-coated brass weights. In a demonstration, the user showed a heart-shaped gold item supposedly weighing 1 baht, which when disassembled, revealed additional weights inside, suggesting deliberate tampering to deceive buyers.
The fraudulent method, which has been increasingly observed, involves skilled artisans injecting brass weights inside genuine gold items. These altered items are then pawned, only for the scammers to abandon them, leading to significant financial losses for the pawnbrokers when the true weight is revealed later.
Gold pawning shops, such as “Jack Buying Gold,” report that these fraudulent items are often designed to appear as legitimate jewelry, making them difficult to detect during transactions. When checks are performed, the pawn brokers may only discover the tampering after the items are brought back from pawn, highlighting the challenge in identifying these scams.
The investigation revealed that these groups use “front” individuals to pawn the altered items, avoiding consistent patterns that could lead to detection. This technique results in substantial monetary losses, with some individuals experiencing drops in value from 40,000 baht to only 20,000 baht after the fraudulent weights are revealed.
Due to the nature of these scams, it is very challenging to assess the authenticity of the items even with standard procedures like acid tests, which do not effectively reveal the brass weights inside. While some physical characteristics such as rough seams can indicate tampering, many victims are often not aware until it’s too late.
Reports indicate a high prevalence of these scams particularly in Samut Sakhon province, where pawning shops have begun to flag suspicious customers as a preventative measure, although scammers often send new individuals to continue the deceit.
To avoid falling victim to these scams, consumers are advised to purchase gold from reputable dealers who perform thorough checks and remelt items to ensure authenticity. Buyers should remain cautious of prices that seem unusually low, as they may attract scammers preying on greed.
Images used with permission from “Jack Buying Gold Pawning.”
This article was rewritten from a Thairath’s news article.
