Gold shops beware as foreigner and Thai girlfriend pass off copper as gold

[luckyman]

clearly a crime and criminals should be punished.

however, if you're going to open a gold shop make sure you have basic knowledge of the product your dealing with.

Exactly, fully agreed, so I guess he learned a stiff lesson. Next !

[Time Traveller]

That's a pretty elaborate hoax for 1000 dollars. I would assume the seller had no idea it was copper coated in gold

Likely the Thai woman was clueless and the foreign man put her up to making the sale.

He may or may not have known it was fake. It looks like the gold is from another country by the English wording and what appears to be Roman numerals.

A fake he brought to pawn off in Thailand or what he thought was a hard asset to finance his stay.

If it fooled the shop keeper so he may have bought it in good faith as well.

None of what you said makes sense. To create the fake bar he needed a copper ingot thickly coated in actual gold. Then he needed to make or steal the hallmark stamps from the Australian gold brand to create a bar exact weight of 1 oz. And did this all to scam for less than 1200 dollars? Of course that assumes he was able find a gold buyer who would not actually fire test it first before purchasing. Who knows maybe it was just a test to see if he could get away with passing a fake, more likely he didn't know it was fake when he sold it.

[KMartinHandyman]

You were doing good right up until you said "none of what you said makes sense"

Try reading my last sentence which states "more likely he didn't know it was fake when he sold"

If you read it and didn't understand it I respect fully recommend an English comprehension course.

[jacko45k]

Gold is twice the weight of copper.

Just saying, like.

Perhaps you mean dense.......

Likely it was weighed and one would expect it to be somewhat bigger than expected for the weight.

[worgeordie]

"All that glitters,is not Gold", a well known saying,

that the Gold shop owner has never heard of,obliviously.

regards Worgeordie

[happy chappie]

They cost £6.99 on eBay,look for yourself.i paid £750 for a real one that retail at £880.his profit would of been 10% but he's out of profit 100%...mind you I didn't see the gold shops crying when gold tripled in price a few years ago.

[Doc46]

Karma

[webfact]

Foreign Conman Swindles South Pattaya Gold Shop Owner



PATTAYA: -- At 4:30 pm on Friday 8th of March Mr. Kitti Prasongsuttiphon reported to Pattaya police that on Sunday the 3rd of April he had bought gold bars from a foreigner and his Thai girlfriend that subsequently turned out to be fake.

The incident occurred at his Gold Shop. Duanphen, on Soi Buakaew, Mr.Kitti the 38 year old, gold shop owner, said, that at approximately 1:00 pm a foreign man and his Thai girlfriend brought gold bars to his shop to have them assessed

Mr. Kitti weighed the gold and investigating by sight, using his experience to give the couple a price. The foreign men and his girlfriend walked out of the shop to discuss amongst themselves.

Full story: http://pattayaone.net/pattaya-news/crime/222787/foreign-conman-swindles-south-pattaya-gold-shop-owner/


-- Pattaya One 2016-04-11

[Nicolas32]

Ouch 40,200 Baht was agreed

[torpedo1970]

Karma!

It warms my heart to see that the land of scams are not a one way street

[tropo]

Clever gold shop owner......payback for the fraud these shops have been known to commit with farang and Thai alike!

That's not very nice and a puerile attitude. The swindled shop was probably honest as most of them are and now you're glad he was swindled because you believe he should atone for the sins of other people who have cheated.

The swindler was very clever though. This will change the way gold shops test ingots from here on in.

[tropo]

So the Goldsmith payed 1297b per gram. Was that a fair price had it been real?

Looks slightly low. There are 15.2 grams to 1 Baht

It's a troy ounce of gold from Australia, mate. That's 31.1034768 grams of 99.99% gold. There's a photo of it in the report.

[tropo]

Ouch 40,200 Baht was agreed

Assuming 15.16 grams (of 96.5% gold) cost 20,650 at time of sale - 5% (commission) = 19,617.50 baht /14.63 (pure gold weight) = 1341 x 31.1 = 41,702 baht. The price wasn't too far off.

They played a good swindling game - going away and thinking about it first. This won't happen again - the whole industry has been saved. A cheap lesson in the grand scheme of things.

Edited April 11, 2016 by tropo

[mike324]

I am in the gold business.. Theres chinese companies now openly selling tungsten coated bars and coins..

As fr Mr gold shop owner.. He entered into a free trade, he should have been sure of what he was purchasing.. Costs of doing business.

I agree, the shop seller is too quick to call fraud. The shop owner even tested the gold bar, and seller return to the store second time after discussing if they want to sell. My guess is that seller has no knowledge it was copper inside. Plus I would expect the buyer to have a copy of the ID of the seller.