Dear All,
I am a 50 year old woman from Malaysia with no experience or much knowledge of gold business, let alone gold testing. However, since I have to support my family, I was forced to assume a job as a gold broker/agent for the past one year. My job basically was to arrange or introduce buyers to sellers vice versa. Recently I was involved in a transaction involving gold dust here in my country. The dust was from Ghana and the seller was a Ghanaian gold agent whom I got to know from a miner in Ghana. Before he came to Malaysia, I managed to find 2 interested local buyers and after studying the seller's FCO and the transaction procedure, they signed up an agreement which was signed by both parties. However, when the agent came to Malaysia to execute the transaction, the buyers backed out due to disagreement on the procedure, hence the transaction was cancelled. After that I introduced several interested buyers to seller. Despite sample testing showing that the product is genuine, transactions were aborted due the inability of buyers to show proof of fund.
The procedure set by the seller is as follows:
1) Seller will inspect the gold dust, mixed the gold in a container thoroughly before taking a sample (10-15gm) from the container for testing. Then buyer is asked to transfer the gold to his own box and lock it using buyer's key. This to prevent the gold being tampered by anyone while sample is being tested elsewhere. Sample testing can be done either in front of the seller or in the lab.
2) After testing result proves the product is genuine, buyer is required to pay 50% worth of goods, take the whole goods for smelting and pay the remaining amount within 3 days.
I was involved with 3 potential transactions and in all cases sample testing proved the product has minimum purity of 90%. The only problem why buyers failed to execute transaction because they have no funds. On the fourth transaction however, a buyer came with the fund for a 1kg gold dust. He had previously sample tested the goods from the seller and was satisfied with the goods. During the transaction, he brought his own testing kit (he claimed he's an expert gold assayer). This following describes what had happened during the transaction:
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The transaction was carried out in a hotel room. 5 persons were in the room: the buyer cum assayer, myself, seller, and his 2 assistants. The seller brought a pouch containing gold dust and first he asked the assayer to shake the pouch so as to mix the content thoroughly. Then seller asked buyer to take a sample and put inside a plastic packet. Next, buyer was asked to transfer the gold into a plastic beg and the beg was wrapped tightly with cellotape by the buyer to ensure no tampering or exchange of product. When the seller realized the buyer didn't bring a container with a key to lock the gold (buyer is supposed to bring his own container but he didnt), seller asked me to hold the wrapped package. Then he and the buyer moved to the restroom to do the acid test there. I did not see how the test was conducted as my was blocked by the door of the restroom. While they were doing the test, I was sitting still at the corner of the room holding the package while the other two assistants were sitting a bit far from me and we didn't interact at all. The testing took about 10 mins and the buyer was satisfied with the result and ordered me to hand over the money to seller. The seller and his men left shortly after, After they left, I handed over the package to buyer. I asked him whether I could ask 2 other persons (his friend, also a gold expert and another broker) who were waiting at the lobby, to come up to the room but he said, no need to do so. He then unwrapped the package and inspected the content under the table lamp. I saw him inspecting the gold closely, rubbing the gold with his fingers and later took a bit of gold from the container and run a magnet test on it on a piece of paper. I was told by him the magnet test is to check the presence of iron in the sample. He did it once in the restroom but wasn't satisfied with the first magnet test because he used toilet paper to hold the sample. I asked him whether he's satisfied with the second magnet test, he replied yes. The next step I saw him weighing the gold for 1kg and put the gold in a plastic bag which he brought with him. The remaining gold weighed 58gm was put in another plastic bag and he handed it to me as any excess is considered as my commission. Then both of us left the room at the same time and joined the other people at the lobby. At the lobby, the buyer handed over the commission money to the other broker and upon her suggestion I handed over the 58gm to the buyer so that he could smelt and later sell the gold and give the money to this broker which later to be split between her and me. Then all of us parted ways and buyer promised to let us know the results as soon as he has tested it. I didn't offer to go to the lab with them because I had once requested to see how the smelting was done at his lab (this is the instruction given to me by the seller to ensure no cheating during the smelting) but refused by the buyer as he felt insulted that the seller did not trust hiim.
The following day, I received an SMS from buyer saying that everything was OK and he intended to buy 2-3 kgs more and ask me and the other broker to meet him in the evening so that he could handover the money for the 58gms gold that was in his custody. However, when we met him an his friends we were shocked when he told me the gold was fake. When I asked for evidence, he showed us a packet of treated dust and small bar (black in color) which he claimed was copper, a plastic packet containing 58gms of gold (looked to me in its original form), a scan report which he claimed showed no presence of gold at all in the gold, an a small nugget that has been smelted from a sample taken from the same seller on previous occasion. When I asked him what is the next course of action, he said he's not interested in getting his money refunded but HE ASKED ME TO GET THE GENUINE GOLD FROM THE SELLER. At first, he accused the seller of cheating him by giving him the fake one on purpose. He also warned me not to report to the police or to tell the seller about the fake gold. He asked me to persuade the seller to come for another transaction so that during the transaction he' could force the seller to give him the genuine gold to replace the fake one. I immediately contacted the seller and was answered by him. I told him there'll be another transaction and he agreed and he'll call me later to confirm which he did.
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MY FIRST REACTION TO THE INCIDENT WAS I SUSPECTED THE SELLER HAS CHEATED THE BUYER WITH A FAKE PRODUCT. BUT AFTER I CALMED DOWN AND COULD THINK RATIONALLY, I BECAME SUSPICIOUS OF THE BUYER'S STORY. SEVERAL NAGGING QUESTIONS ARE LEFT UNANSWERED WHICH MADE ME BECOME SUSPICIOUS OF THE BUYER.THEY ARE:
1) DESPITE BEING CHEATED BY THE SELLER, WHY BUYER STILL BELIEVES THAT SELLER HAS THE GENUINE PRODUCT AND FORCE ME TO PERSUADE THE SELLER TO RELEASE 1KG TO RPLACE THE SOCALLED FAKE PRODUCT GIVEN TO BUYER.
2) DESPITE KNOWING THE PRODUCT WAS FOUND FAKE 5 HOURS AFTER THE TRNSACTION, WHY THEY WAITED 20 HOURS TO TELL ME ABOUT IT.
3) IF SELLER DID CHEAT BUYER, WHY SELLER STILL RESPONDING TO MY CALLS AND STAY IN THE COUNTRY FOR AT LEAST 2 DAYS AFTER THE TRANSACTION. ANY CHEATS WOULD IMMDIATELY DISSAPEAR AND SWITCH OFF THE PHONE.
4) WHEN ASKED TO RETURN ME THE 58GM, BUYER REFUSED TO DO SO AND REFUSED TO RESPOND TO MY CALLS..
5) THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION IS HOW COME SAMPLE THAT WAS TAKEN FROM THE SAME CONTAINER TESTED GENUINE BUT WHEN BROUGHT TO THE LAB BECOME FAKE.
Based on these suspicions, I called the buyer and told him that he's the one who was trying to cheat the seller to get another 1kg gold for free. When he heard this, he became mad and later he switched off the phone. The following day, he called again and I threatened to report the case to the police if he didn't return the 58gm that should be returned to me. A week later I received a call from a police and asked me to come over for interrogation. There I was informed by the police that buyer has lodged a report against me and accused me collaborating with seller in the hotel room to change the genuine product with a fake one when buyer was testing the sample in the restroom. I have given full cooperation to the police but up to now I'm not able to get in touch with the seller. I was told by his office in Ghana he might be somewhere in china and the office does not have his contact number. He's my only witness that able to clear my name. Till then I am now become the prime suspect and was warned by the police that they might have to remand me to help with the investigation.
I am now in desperate need to get some legal assistance but I have no means to hire a lawyer. To make matter worse, the buyer has told the story to the local daily and was printed front page. The article clearly painted me as the suspect corroborating with seller to cheat innocent buyer. Eventhough no names were mentioned but the article describes the suspect succintly that those who know me could easily associate the person in the article with me. I received calls from relatives, and friends asking for confirmation I was the one meant by the article. This has put me under so much pressure and i have to totally abandon my job which means loss of income. I am determined to fight these cheats but I don't know how and where to begin. My future and reputation is at stake. Please anyone do help me. I may be contacted at azzumaria@yahoo.com.
I am a 50 year old woman from Malaysia with no experience or much knowledge of gold business, let alone gold testing. However, since I have to support my family, I was forced to assume a job as a gold broker/agent for the past one year. My job basically was to arrange or introduce buyers to sellers vice versa. Recently I was involved in a transaction involving gold dust here in my country. The dust was from Ghana and the seller was a Ghanaian gold agent whom I got to know from a miner in Ghana. Before he came to Malaysia, I managed to find 2 interested local buyers and after studying the seller's FCO and the transaction procedure, they signed up an agreement which was signed by both parties. However, when the agent came to Malaysia to execute the transaction, the buyers backed out due to disagreement on the procedure, hence the transaction was cancelled. After that I introduced several interested buyers to seller. Despite sample testing showing that the product is genuine, transactions were aborted due the inability of buyers to show proof of fund.
The procedure set by the seller is as follows:
1) Seller will inspect the gold dust, mixed the gold in a container thoroughly before taking a sample (10-15gm) from the container for testing. Then buyer is asked to transfer the gold to his own box and lock it using buyer's key. This to prevent the gold being tampered by anyone while sample is being tested elsewhere. Sample testing can be done either in front of the seller or in the lab.
2) After testing result proves the product is genuine, buyer is required to pay 50% worth of goods, take the whole goods for smelting and pay the remaining amount within 3 days.
I was involved with 3 potential transactions and in all cases sample testing proved the product has minimum purity of 90%. The only problem why buyers failed to execute transaction because they have no funds. On the fourth transaction however, a buyer came with the fund for a 1kg gold dust. He had previously sample tested the goods from the seller and was satisfied with the goods. During the transaction, he brought his own testing kit (he claimed he's an expert gold assayer). This following describes what had happened during the transaction:
=========================================================================================
The transaction was carried out in a hotel room. 5 persons were in the room: the buyer cum assayer, myself, seller, and his 2 assistants. The seller brought a pouch containing gold dust and first he asked the assayer to shake the pouch so as to mix the content thoroughly. Then seller asked buyer to take a sample and put inside a plastic packet. Next, buyer was asked to transfer the gold into a plastic beg and the beg was wrapped tightly with cellotape by the buyer to ensure no tampering or exchange of product. When the seller realized the buyer didn't bring a container with a key to lock the gold (buyer is supposed to bring his own container but he didnt), seller asked me to hold the wrapped package. Then he and the buyer moved to the restroom to do the acid test there. I did not see how the test was conducted as my was blocked by the door of the restroom. While they were doing the test, I was sitting still at the corner of the room holding the package while the other two assistants were sitting a bit far from me and we didn't interact at all. The testing took about 10 mins and the buyer was satisfied with the result and ordered me to hand over the money to seller. The seller and his men left shortly after, After they left, I handed over the package to buyer. I asked him whether I could ask 2 other persons (his friend, also a gold expert and another broker) who were waiting at the lobby, to come up to the room but he said, no need to do so. He then unwrapped the package and inspected the content under the table lamp. I saw him inspecting the gold closely, rubbing the gold with his fingers and later took a bit of gold from the container and run a magnet test on it on a piece of paper. I was told by him the magnet test is to check the presence of iron in the sample. He did it once in the restroom but wasn't satisfied with the first magnet test because he used toilet paper to hold the sample. I asked him whether he's satisfied with the second magnet test, he replied yes. The next step I saw him weighing the gold for 1kg and put the gold in a plastic bag which he brought with him. The remaining gold weighed 58gm was put in another plastic bag and he handed it to me as any excess is considered as my commission. Then both of us left the room at the same time and joined the other people at the lobby. At the lobby, the buyer handed over the commission money to the other broker and upon her suggestion I handed over the 58gm to the buyer so that he could smelt and later sell the gold and give the money to this broker which later to be split between her and me. Then all of us parted ways and buyer promised to let us know the results as soon as he has tested it. I didn't offer to go to the lab with them because I had once requested to see how the smelting was done at his lab (this is the instruction given to me by the seller to ensure no cheating during the smelting) but refused by the buyer as he felt insulted that the seller did not trust hiim.
The following day, I received an SMS from buyer saying that everything was OK and he intended to buy 2-3 kgs more and ask me and the other broker to meet him in the evening so that he could handover the money for the 58gms gold that was in his custody. However, when we met him an his friends we were shocked when he told me the gold was fake. When I asked for evidence, he showed us a packet of treated dust and small bar (black in color) which he claimed was copper, a plastic packet containing 58gms of gold (looked to me in its original form), a scan report which he claimed showed no presence of gold at all in the gold, an a small nugget that has been smelted from a sample taken from the same seller on previous occasion. When I asked him what is the next course of action, he said he's not interested in getting his money refunded but HE ASKED ME TO GET THE GENUINE GOLD FROM THE SELLER. At first, he accused the seller of cheating him by giving him the fake one on purpose. He also warned me not to report to the police or to tell the seller about the fake gold. He asked me to persuade the seller to come for another transaction so that during the transaction he' could force the seller to give him the genuine gold to replace the fake one. I immediately contacted the seller and was answered by him. I told him there'll be another transaction and he agreed and he'll call me later to confirm which he did.
=========================================================================================
MY FIRST REACTION TO THE INCIDENT WAS I SUSPECTED THE SELLER HAS CHEATED THE BUYER WITH A FAKE PRODUCT. BUT AFTER I CALMED DOWN AND COULD THINK RATIONALLY, I BECAME SUSPICIOUS OF THE BUYER'S STORY. SEVERAL NAGGING QUESTIONS ARE LEFT UNANSWERED WHICH MADE ME BECOME SUSPICIOUS OF THE BUYER.THEY ARE:
1) DESPITE BEING CHEATED BY THE SELLER, WHY BUYER STILL BELIEVES THAT SELLER HAS THE GENUINE PRODUCT AND FORCE ME TO PERSUADE THE SELLER TO RELEASE 1KG TO RPLACE THE SOCALLED FAKE PRODUCT GIVEN TO BUYER.
2) DESPITE KNOWING THE PRODUCT WAS FOUND FAKE 5 HOURS AFTER THE TRNSACTION, WHY THEY WAITED 20 HOURS TO TELL ME ABOUT IT.
3) IF SELLER DID CHEAT BUYER, WHY SELLER STILL RESPONDING TO MY CALLS AND STAY IN THE COUNTRY FOR AT LEAST 2 DAYS AFTER THE TRANSACTION. ANY CHEATS WOULD IMMDIATELY DISSAPEAR AND SWITCH OFF THE PHONE.
4) WHEN ASKED TO RETURN ME THE 58GM, BUYER REFUSED TO DO SO AND REFUSED TO RESPOND TO MY CALLS..
5) THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION IS HOW COME SAMPLE THAT WAS TAKEN FROM THE SAME CONTAINER TESTED GENUINE BUT WHEN BROUGHT TO THE LAB BECOME FAKE.
Based on these suspicions, I called the buyer and told him that he's the one who was trying to cheat the seller to get another 1kg gold for free. When he heard this, he became mad and later he switched off the phone. The following day, he called again and I threatened to report the case to the police if he didn't return the 58gm that should be returned to me. A week later I received a call from a police and asked me to come over for interrogation. There I was informed by the police that buyer has lodged a report against me and accused me collaborating with seller in the hotel room to change the genuine product with a fake one when buyer was testing the sample in the restroom. I have given full cooperation to the police but up to now I'm not able to get in touch with the seller. I was told by his office in Ghana he might be somewhere in china and the office does not have his contact number. He's my only witness that able to clear my name. Till then I am now become the prime suspect and was warned by the police that they might have to remand me to help with the investigation.
I am now in desperate need to get some legal assistance but I have no means to hire a lawyer. To make matter worse, the buyer has told the story to the local daily and was printed front page. The article clearly painted me as the suspect corroborating with seller to cheat innocent buyer. Eventhough no names were mentioned but the article describes the suspect succintly that those who know me could easily associate the person in the article with me. I received calls from relatives, and friends asking for confirmation I was the one meant by the article. This has put me under so much pressure and i have to totally abandon my job which means loss of income. I am determined to fight these cheats but I don't know how and where to begin. My future and reputation is at stake. Please anyone do help me. I may be contacted at azzumaria@yahoo.com.
