Fake gold scam. How pawn shops in several counties were cheated with tins for 2 years

On Wednesday, DIICOT Pitesti police and prosecutors conducted 27 searches in five counties and in the Capital, on people who allegedly defrauded pawn shops with fake jewelry and gold coins. The damage reaches two million lei.

Several pawn shops were defrauded PHOTO: Video capture Romanian Police

From the research done, it emerged that, starting from November 2021 and until now, members of an organized criminal group, operating in Argeș county, allegedly misled the employees of some pawnshops, with headquarters in Argeș, Dâmbovița, Prahova counties , Caraș-Severin and Constanța, by placing fake gold jewelry and ducats and by requesting loans based on the concluded mortgage contracts.

Thus, damage estimated at approximately 2,000,000 lei was caused.

The members of the criminal group would have assured the pawnshop operators that they would respect the contractual obligations, and, in order to gain their trust, they would have paid the commission in advance, but after the expiration of the term for which the contracts were concluded, they would no longer be presented to claim and pick up the pledged objects.

“Conventional methods of verification used by pawnshop operators would not have been able to detect the forgery, as the objects would have been carefully worked and would have had a consistent gold coating. The people under investigation would have displayed behavior aimed at distracting the employees' attention so that the verification the authenticity of the goods to be superficial. As a result of the searches carried out, potentially counterfeit jewelry, mobile phones, documents with probative value, sums of money, as well as other means of evidence were discovered and seized.”
shows IGPR.

14 suspects were taken for questioning. They are all being investigated for forming an organized criminal group, fraud, attempted fraud and circulation of counterfeit foreign currency.