Some time ago I was contacted by a young man. (Or more correctly, he contacted the department of chemistry, and weird requests quite often end up at my table)
He wanted to "know something about gold" but was not really willing to tell me why. He just needed a "quick method for the non-chemist to test the fineness of gold".
It took a little interrogation to make him tell the whole story.
He happened to know an African gentleman, who had contacts in Africa that could sell placer gold.... quite a bit under spot! He had seen (African) test documents proving the quality.
This was where my alarms went off, all of them!
I told him quite clearly, that these three terms
-Africa
-Gold
-"make a lot of money"
Just stank of a scam. But he insisted that his contact was an honest man.
I then told him, that the only way he should ever buy gold like that, was if it was cast in a bar, that he himself drilled a sample from it, then locked it in a bank box where only he had access and had the drillings tested.
If that test was OK, he could consider buying, but no one should be allowed to touch the gold after he had sampled it.
(He still didn't believe me)
I sent him on to a metal dealer I know, that I knew would say exactly the same.
Half a year ago I met this dealer again, and we naturally had the usual chat about metal. He then told about a young guy who had contacted him (well, you know who), he had warned him, but the young man had loaned approx. $ 100.000 and gone on safari (I wonder what he told the bank? But before the crisis they were rather indiscriminate).
They drove quite deep into nothing, met the people with the gold, he paid the money, got the gold... and on the way back, highwaymen with Kalashnikovs were (not surprisingly) waiting .
I have no doubt it was a scam from end to end, but nothing can be proved.
The young man probably learned something, but it was a rather expensive lesson.
Just thought I'd share the story with you, I believe we have seen a couple of scammers banned from this forum already.
Gold and greed are sisters, and the greedy are often fooled by people who are smarter and greedier.
He wanted to "know something about gold" but was not really willing to tell me why. He just needed a "quick method for the non-chemist to test the fineness of gold".
It took a little interrogation to make him tell the whole story.
He happened to know an African gentleman, who had contacts in Africa that could sell placer gold.... quite a bit under spot! He had seen (African) test documents proving the quality.
This was where my alarms went off, all of them!
I told him quite clearly, that these three terms
-Africa
-Gold
-"make a lot of money"
Just stank of a scam. But he insisted that his contact was an honest man.
I then told him, that the only way he should ever buy gold like that, was if it was cast in a bar, that he himself drilled a sample from it, then locked it in a bank box where only he had access and had the drillings tested.
If that test was OK, he could consider buying, but no one should be allowed to touch the gold after he had sampled it.
(He still didn't believe me)
I sent him on to a metal dealer I know, that I knew would say exactly the same.
Half a year ago I met this dealer again, and we naturally had the usual chat about metal. He then told about a young guy who had contacted him (well, you know who), he had warned him, but the young man had loaned approx. $ 100.000 and gone on safari (I wonder what he told the bank? But before the crisis they were rather indiscriminate).
They drove quite deep into nothing, met the people with the gold, he paid the money, got the gold... and on the way back, highwaymen with Kalashnikovs were (not surprisingly) waiting .
I have no doubt it was a scam from end to end, but nothing can be proved.
The young man probably learned something, but it was a rather expensive lesson.
Just thought I'd share the story with you, I believe we have seen a couple of scammers banned from this forum already.
Gold and greed are sisters, and the greedy are often fooled by people who are smarter and greedier.
