SACRAMENTO, California. – Through the opportunity to buy $20,000 worth of gold, he lost $7,000 in cash, which a Hispanic woman used to pay for some counterfeit bars of this precious metal; one of the scams when buying gold.
This is a more common scam than one might think, said jewelers interviewed by Univision 19 in Sacramento.
“We see them almost every day,” said a jeweler consulted by this medium.
The counterfeit gold bar scam
“I was very disappointed because I realized that I had been deceived,” are the words of the Northern California resident, whose identity was protected.
She exposed the modus operandi of gold fraudsters in California.
The deception began with a person asking for directions and approaching the victim.
“My wife was run over. Her condition is serious and those who ran her over had to pay for these gold bars,” was the story the victim received from the fraudster.
Then a second impostor comes who assures that he has nothing to do with the man asking for help, but that he wants to support him.
Then this person decides to help the first scammer and goes to a jewelry store with three gold bars, supposedly to sell them.
He immediately goes to a jewelry store and comes back saying that they supposedly bought him a gold bar for $20,000.
Here the deception increases, the supposed good Samaritan suggests that he and the victim buy the two remaining gold bars.
In this case, the victim claimed he paid $7,000 for a gold bar that he supposedly could sell for $20,000.
But the supposed gold is fake and worthless.
The victim told Univision 19 that the gold purchase scam caused him to lose the money they had saved to buy a house.
Tips for buying gold in California
If you want to buy gold, you need to make sure the gold is real before paying.
To do this, you must contact a professional jeweler to confirm the authenticity and value of the jewelry.
If the metal is worn or dirty on your hands, these are signs that it may be fake.
Additionally, you should be suspicious of an offer that seems too good to be true.
