January 24 Through February 4—TUCSON, ARIZONA: Annual show
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 Post subject: A BKK gem scam technique
PostPosted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 3:00 am 
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The techniques of Bangkok´s con men are slightly subtler than those of their Indian colleagues. Of course local taxi and tuk-tuk drivers also mastered the crude art of towing taxi passengers into gemshops but the technique described below is more popular and presumably also more effective:

The potential victim is accosted at the bus stop by a dignified gentleman in his best suit. After some preliminary small-talk he reveals himself as a high-ranking retired civil servant, army officer or the like. He has but one problem. His pension is more than decent for Thai standards but, alas, it is not enough to indulge in his hobby, extensive travels to Europe.

Thank goodness there is the benedictory establishment of the "Government Gem Shop" [which, of course, is hogwash!]. Now normally these guys are not allowed to sell to laymen but once a year, during the "Gemstone Promotion Week", that ban is lifted and tourists are allowed to buy there.

Prices might be a fraction higher than on the free market but in return genuineness and quality are warranted by the governement. So for him, the gemmologically uneducated ex-general, it´s just the right place. As a matter of fact he gladly accepts the negligibly higher prices in exchange for the state-guaranteed fraud-free environment.

And after all the gems are still a steal and virtually self-selling in Europe. For him, at least, that poses no problem whatsoever. On the contrary, his european friends every year eagerly await his arrival to pry the stones from his hands.

Then the good man bids his good-bye not without offering to take the tourists to the gemshop right away. After all it´s the penultimate day of the Gemstone Promotion Week. Now comes the perfidious part: tourists nowadays are a notoriously sceptical species and by nature distrust any offer to come along. So the good man hands over a business card of the gem shop – just in case you should decide not to spurn your fortune - and alights with a friendly smile.

If the victim harboured any suspicion that the gentleman was a con artist, he starts to think again. Which con man would exert so little pressure and give up so easily? Could the story be true after all?

What the tourist does not know, is that he is being followed by a second con man, if need be, until he exhaustedly returns to his hotel in the evening. At breakfast, at the latest, the same story is re-presented by the second man, accompanied again by the offer to come right along.

Many victims at that point decide to accept the offer and have a look or they come by themselves in the course of the day. Once in the gemshop, gems of inferior quality are foisted upon them at inflated prices.

In conclusion we would like to emphatically assure all those would-be gemtraders in pursuit of a quick profit that, contrary to what the con men want to make you believe, streets are not paved with gold and that the international gem trade does not depend on tourists to act as buyers or couriers.

Alas! We know perfectly well that this warning will be of no avail whatsoever. In due time, i.e. next year´s holiday season, the game will start all over again and the gem tricksters of this world will find their victims…

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http://www.edelsteine.at/recent-aquisitions/newe/
(re-sellers please register to see wholesale prices)
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Last edited by gemtrader on Tue Jan 06, 2015 3:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: A BKK gem scam technique
PostPosted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 1:53 pm 
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I've often thought it takes 2 to dance this tango.
The actual con and a buyer who believes he is taking advantage of a naive seller, only seeing future $$$ he's going to make from being such a clever buyer.


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 Post subject: Re: A BKK gem scam technique
PostPosted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 2:54 am 
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the buyers don´t think to cleverly outsmart the naive seller.
most, if not all of them, know very well that they know nothing about gems.

rather, they think they are being offered the chance of a lifetime to enter the magical realm.
it´s their ticket to a life of easy money and luxury.

sadly enough it´s mostly folk with very little money, who fall for this.
affluent people might buy an overpriced gem or piece of jewellery and if they find out the real value, they shrug it off and regard the piece as a souvenir.

i had people show up at our office, our business card in hand, telling me "i bring you your gemstones".
it turned out that they had saved up their money for years, to pay for the once-in-a-lifetime trip to asia, fell victim to a scammer and called their grandma to send/lend them 10 grand...

my old mentor maintained that in the long run all this would help local business because people, who had been cheated in foreign countries, would ruefully return to the hometown jeweller for the next birthday present.

i think otherwise. i know from personal experience that at least a great part of these people is lost for the trade.
next time they get some money, they spend it on a fancy car because they think that in the gem and jewellery business you cannot trust anybody.
besides, any gemstone or piece of jewellery reminds them of an episode in their lifes, which they prefer to repress.

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http://www.edelsteine.at/recent-aquisitions/newe/
(re-sellers please register to see wholesale prices)
office@edelsteine.at


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 Post subject: Re: A BKK gem scam technique
PostPosted: Tue Jan 06, 2015 2:45 pm 
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Seems to me that all of use whose interest in gems is in some way known to the public will have gotten these calls - "I got in in Afghanistan, " "I bought it from a local guy in the Cayman Islands." Stuff like that. It's like a certificate from hell: "I got it on a cruise" is all you need to know it will be garbage.

So your heart sinks when you get such a call; you know what is coming. The most,
I suppose you could call it "crass", one to come my way came from a young and obviously poor woman at a gem show some years ago. She said, (and these were her exact words) "If this is what I think it is I think I'm rich. Is this a star sapphire?" She handed me one of those weird and stupid man made blue cabochons with a six pointed star carved into the bottom. No; not a star sapphire; no, not rich. And I had to tell her this and watch her hopes crumble before my eyes.

"I got this in the Cayman Islands," was another memorable one. The guy, again obviously not wealthy, had met some local people who had sold him black coral, God knows for what price, together with a long story to the effect that the stuff had vastly increased in value, was still going up by the day, and if he couldn't sell it when he got back home they would happily buy it back for the same price he had paid them. When I told him approximately what it was really worth I thought he was going to cry right there in front of me.

The combination of greed and stupidity is not usually one that gets my sympathy, but these were such little people. For one time in their scant and stinted lives they had stood at the threshold of a fairy tale. And I had to shatter it for them. It isn't fun.

Cheers all,
Hans Durstling
Moncton, Canada

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 Post subject: Re: A BKK gem scam technique
PostPosted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 5:28 pm 
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I think there is another element at work also.
The victims WISH it were real, and WANT it to be real. They have already sold themselves at some level.

I have had calls and visits from needy people who want to cash in their rainy day assets as a last ditch attempt to avoid some disaster.
In one case it was a bag of tumbled garnets from India, which they had hoarded for decades, and now they had reached the last extreme of desperation and were ready to sell the "Crown Jewels".

I felt sick when I left. I mean physically sick.
When I arrived the children were dancing around happy because they were going to be able to stay in the trailer.

I had a friend who was the most junior member of her law firm. They made her do the Christmas foreclosures.
That made me know how she felt.

I also think a sizable number of people who buy the Rare Certified Untreated Museum rough on Ebay are having similar fantasies. At some level, way down, they know the stuff is rubbish. But they WANT it to be true.

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 Post subject: Re: A BKK gem scam technique
PostPosted: Mon Jan 19, 2015 11:25 pm 
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I often wonder where some of our forum "newbies" ended up, after posting about going on gem mining/buying trips to Asia/Sri Lanka, etc.
Maybe one day, a nice surprise when one of them comes back with a story for us.
Barry.


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 Post subject: Re: A BKK gem scam technique
PostPosted: Mon Jan 19, 2015 11:31 pm 
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I agree Barry.....and the folks with the largest Burmese Rubies, Colombian Emeralds and Kashmir Sapphires ever discovered. What ever becomes of them? Do they ever sell?


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 Post subject: Re: A BKK gem scam technique
PostPosted: Mon Jan 19, 2015 11:40 pm 
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A friend of mine went to Pakistan for business (Lahore iirc). He's a very smart and sensible guy who seems to manage to do everything, so we gave him a quick rundown of what's good there. And in a pleasant surprise he came back with a few decent to good real stones which he'd bought at very reasonable prices. It probably helps that he's used to doing business overseas with people from a variety of cultures. So it's possible for it to not go horribly wrong, anyway!

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 Post subject: Re: A BKK gem scam technique
PostPosted: Tue Jan 20, 2015 2:27 am 
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But Barbra, don't they give us so much enjoyment, just contemplating their stories?
I can't wait for the "Ruby Angel".
Barry.


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 Post subject: Re: A BKK gem scam technique
PostPosted: Tue Jan 20, 2015 2:28 am 
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:smt059
I wonder if it looks like this?


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 Post subject: Re: A BKK gem scam technique
PostPosted: Tue Jan 20, 2015 7:51 am 
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Quote:
I agree Barry.....and the folks with the largest Burmese Rubies, Colombian Emeralds and Kashmir Sapphires ever discovered. What ever becomes of them? Do they ever sell?


Sometimes people live and voice their fantasies. In my generation every town had a teenage boy or two who had a story about conquering a certain Mousketeer.

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 Post subject: Re: A BKK gem scam technique
PostPosted: Tue Jan 20, 2015 6:47 pm 
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What is a "mousketeer?
Barry


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 Post subject: Re: A BKK gem scam technique
PostPosted: Tue Jan 20, 2015 6:56 pm 
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Kids on a Mickey Mouse Club TV show. One was a teen that little boys flipped out over.

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 Post subject: Re: A BKK gem scam technique
PostPosted: Tue Jan 20, 2015 7:31 pm 
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A bit of nostalgia:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4C_lUy58Rw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hemEGjrzcnE

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 Post subject: Re: A BKK gem scam technique
PostPosted: Sat Dec 26, 2015 4:42 am 
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Qld Barry wrote:
I often wonder where some of our forum "newbies" ended up, after posting about going on gem mining/buying trips to Asia/Sri Lanka, etc.
Maybe one day, a nice surprise when one of them comes back with a story for us.
Barry.

I did alright Barry . Didnt get magically large clean stones but didnt expect that either . I was prepared to be disappointed yet still did ok . Got clean material up to 20 carat and made good connection / friends out of it . I guess you have to put a bit of effort in to get somewhere. , some people seem to be able to buy rough day in day out and don't seem to facet any , I wish I had pockets that deep. I had to go because not fit enough to dig own and my rough supplier seems to treat his buisness like a hobby and havnt had a return call for a while. . Ill be going again , yet spend more time there and focus on badly cut stones over rough , which basically is mine run , picked already . Which can take some time to negotiate . Next trip South America , and soon :)


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