CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – A scam involving phony gold jewellery is circulating by means of Clarksville, according to regional jewelry and pawn store proprietors.
Andrew Schmidt, operator of Gold Trade and Personal loan Organization at 1786 Madison St., stated virtually 30 men and women have occur into his store over the past two months with counterfeit gold chains that they’ve acquired below the assumption they were being 18 karat, serious gold chains.
The ruse
Schmidt stated he’s heard the very same story time and time all over again from prospects bringing in gold chains or rings, thinking they’ve managed to score gold for low-cost only to find out they’ve been conned out of several hundred pounds.
The tale, according to Schmidt, is that the folks associated are likely up to others at fuel stations or grocery store parking heaps with gold-colored chains that are stamped 18K.
These persons assert to be from out of state, in require gasoline or grocery dollars and present to provide the victim the chain for everywhere from $100 to $500.
“It’s obviously marked 18K, and if you hand it to me to glance at, I’m heading to hand it ideal back again to you and convey to you it’s a fake. But a individual that’s standing at a fuel station or an old person coming out of the grocery retail store or a thing like that, that’s who they are hitting,” Schmidt mentioned.
If the chains were being real, Schmidt claimed, they’d be well worth anyplace from $2,500 to $3,000. The chains he’s observing are only worthy of $10 to $12, Schmidt claimed.
“I’m sensation terrible for the persons that are strolling in right here,” Schmidt said. “I imply with the holiday seasons and you have bought folks who received duped out of $200 or $500 wondering, ‘Well possibly I have some thing in this article,’ since of the way it’s presented.”
Canvassing the city
Schmidt mentioned this fraud has been heading on around the past yr or so, but has noticeably increased about the previous a number of weeks.
An staff at The Gold Trade and Mortgage Organization retail outlet told Clarksville Now he heard tales of this targeting happening all above – from fuel stations in Oak Grove, Kentucky, to the Southside location in Montgomery County. The operator of Golden Eagle Jewellery noted the exact thing.
“They’re canvassing this entire city,” Schmidt reported.
Clarksville Police Lt. Charles Gill claimed no matter if there’s a criminal offense in these predicaments is not obvious minimize due to the fact there was a transaction concerning two get-togethers. The difficulty arrives down to deception.
“If it commonly sounds way too superior to be real, then it is possibly not legitimate,” Gill explained, including that buys of gold should only be made from reputable sellers.
