“金包银”不怕火炼？揭开“黄金”抵押新骗局 ！

Core Viewpoint - The rising gold prices have led to an increase in the popularity of "gold-plated silver" jewelry as a cheaper alternative to pure gold, but this has also given rise to new types of mortgage scams targeting pawn shops [1]. Group 1: Scam Details - A pawn shop owner in Wuxi, Jiangsu, encountered a customer who claimed to need money for a wedding and offered a gold bracelet as collateral, requesting 20,000 yuan [3]. - The pawn shop owner conducted standard tests and found no visible changes in the gold bracelet after burning it, leading to a payment of over 21,000 yuan [3]. - Upon attempting to resell the bracelet a month later, the owner discovered it was actually silver, reducing its value to 5,000 yuan [3]. Group 2: Organized Crime - The scam was not a spontaneous act but rather a well-planned operation involving an eight-member fraud gang with specific tools and scripts for their scams [5]. - The gang utilized chat groups to promote their "gold-plated silver" jewelry, claiming it could pass fire and spectral tests, making it difficult for ordinary people to identify the fraud [5]. - They specifically instructed pawn shops not to cut or melt the jewelry, emphasizing that it was "heirloom gold" and would be redeemed in a month, allowing time for the scam to unfold [6]. Group 3: Impact and Legal Consequences - The gang exploited the vulnerabilities in pawn shop testing methods, as "gold-plated silver" could pass fire and spectral tests, with only cutting revealing the truth [7]. - Over a span of three months, the gang executed more than ten scams, accumulating over 200,000 yuan in fraudulent gains [7]. - Prosecutors indicated that the defendants' actions constituted fraud under Article 266 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, with clear evidence of their criminal activities [9].