Six arrested in Phuket in fake gold scam

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Six arrested in Phuket in fake gold scam

Eakkapop Thongtub

 

The six arrested scammers (seated right) at presented to the press today (June 5). Photo: Eakkapop Thongtub

 

PHUKET: -- Officers from Phuket City Police have arrested six people in connection with a fake gold selling scam which have left various gold shops around the island out of pocket.

 

The announcement of the arrests came at a press conference held at the Phuket City Police Station at 9am today by acting Phuket City Police Chief Col Peerayut Garajaedee.

 

Col Peerayut said that the arrests were made after the owner of the Thongtip Gold Centre, which has three branches on the island, Ms Buathip Thanetthanasombat, 35, from Phuket reported that her shops had been sold various amounts of fake gold between May-June valued at B3,576,000.

 

Ms Buathip said that on May 31 two women went to the Thongtip Gold Centre on Phang Nga Rd in Phuket Town and sold fake gold items.

 

After selling the gold the suspects left the area in a Bangkok-registered black Ford pickup truck which had been left in front of the bus station off Phang Nga Rd.

 

After receiving the complaint, Phuket Provincial Police Commander Maj Gen Teeraphol Thipjaroen ordered acting Deputy Police Chief of the Phuket City Police Lt Col Pathak Khwanna and his team together with officers Patong, Kamala and Tha Chatchai police stations to investigate.

 

On Saturday (June 3), police had sightings of a Bangkok-registered black Ford pickup truck which they believed was about to leave the island, so they contacted officers stationed at the Phuket Checkpoint in Mai Khao to stop the vehicle should it attempt to leave.

 

The vehicle did attempt to pass through the checkpoint but was stopped and police arrested five people on suspicion of committing the crimes.

 

Full story: http://www.thephuketnews.com/six-arrested-in-phuket-in-fake-gold-scam-62452.php

 

-- © Copyright Phuket News 2017-06-05

[colinneil]

I know nothing about gold, but surely gold shop owners/staff should know the difference between real and fake gold.

[LivinginKata]

8 minutes ago, colinneil said:

I know nothing about gold, but surely gold shop owners/staff should know the difference between real and fake gold.

 

You would think ... my wife just recently bought some gold jewelery here in Kata. I must show her this news report.

[Naam]

34 minutes ago, colinneil said:

I know nothing about gold, but surely gold shop owners/staff should know the difference between real and fake gold.

google "Tungsten" or "Wolfram". its specific weight is nearly identical with gold. a 24k gold plated Tungsten bar, coin or piece of jewelry is extremely difficult to distinguish from gold without cutting  or drilling a hole in it.

[Matt96]

there is an electronic gold tester for decades already. which can identify fake gold in a few seconds.

 

what's wrong with these gold shop owners? are they stuck in the 19th century?

[janclaes47]

3 minutes ago, Matt96 said:

there is an electronic gold tester for decades already. which can identify fake gold in a few seconds.

No there isn't

[Matt96]

1 hour ago, janclaes47 said:

No there isn't

yes, there is

 

 

[janclaes47]

6 minutes ago, Matt96 said:

yes, there is

 

 

No there isn't, it is just a replacement for the liquid based test, but will not detect fake gold as explained by Naam in post #4

[wakeupplease]

On 05/06/2017 at 8:42 AM, colinneil said:

I know nothing about gold, but surely gold shop owners/staff should know the difference between real and fake gold.

you are so right on that.

 

Great advertisement for local gold shops if they cannot tell the different between gold of the good variety and FAKE gold.

 

So the shops must be one of those you get warned about on government websites who say many in this region are fake and do not buy.

 

Great story though Gold Shop gets conned with fake gold, back to school

[gk10002000]

As an engineer, not a jeweler, not a chemist, I  was curious and looked into these things a little bit.  As others have posted, there are elements and alloys very similar to gold that could make standard weight and density tests hard to do.  Gold does have other properties and I am aware of some highly technical resistance tests, using conductivity, inductance etc.  Most scams seem to involve gold plating, or a few other types of gold surfacing, I think allodyne?  Magnetic tests can help also.  Then there are more exotic laboratory tests, x-ray flourescence and other stuff.  Without drilling and touchstoning the actual material it can be hard to find fake stuff. Best guess is to try several things.

[fforest1]

I have not researched this subject at all...

But

I don't believe for one second that with all the technology

in the world that there is not already a cheap and easy

gold test with 100% accuracy......

How complex is a I-Phone? They can make a I-Phone but

not a gold test? Give me a break...