買金飾一定要去有誠信的商店

雖然這文章是說印度, 但在世上任何國家都一樣可以發生 ！

www.thenews.com.pk


Sunday, November 30, 2008
By Faryal Najeeb

KARACHI: Manipulation and cheating is on the rise in gold markets as customers return to jewellery shops with the onset of wedding season and an added incentive of softening gold prices.

Market sources informed that the dealers mix other elements in pure gold to gain more weight. The mixing in the ramshackle workshops is done with such expertise that shine, lustre and weight remains similar to the precious metal and yet the value is far less than quoted. A gold chain or bangle for instance sold as 22 carat gold may turn out to be only of 18 carat gold and rest being impurities.

A dealer who did not want to be named said that he has been in the business for almost 30 years and while cheating customers of their money is not an unusual practice amongst gold dealers, the recent financial crises and inflation have increased the occurrence of this illegal practice seems to be on the rise.

The dealer said that with the absence of hallmarking in local gold jewelleries, the illegal practice is easy to follow and in fact is one of the major reasons of trade malpractice.

Hallmarking is a mark showing that something is of high quality whereas the act of hallmarking is where precious metals such as gold, silver and platinum are stamped/ branded with the weight and purity (the carat) hence signifying the authenticity of the precious metals.

President All-Pakistan Supreme Council of Jewellers Association, Alhaj Haroon Rashid Chand also referred to the lack of hallmarking in the country and said that apart from local customers even international trade was being influenced by the lack of the practice. He said that local gold was often wrongly evaluated which led to either a loss for Pakistan or mistrust amongst foreign counterparts.

Citing an example, he shared that Americans wear 9k, 12k and 18k gold jewelleries more popularly and there had been a case where 9k gold items were labelled as 12k and 12k as 18k gold items. Needless to say, the incident had brought much shame to our trade� he added.

All over the world hallmarking is carried out and verified by authentic associations and only then the final product is sent out into the market which helps to reduce fraud cases but in our country we do not even have an official representative organisation�, he informed.

Sources within the gold markets informed The News that malpractice is on the rise amongst gold smiths and dealers as they dupe customers by charging them for 22k (carats) gold jewelleries while providing them accessories of a much lower value as it is often mixed with copper and silver metals.

The dealer said that it was the first time in several years that the market had seen such an appalling decline in customers and traders in his business were getting desperate to prevent their businesses from failure.

He said that his family had been goldsmiths for centuries and his grandfather had brought the trade to Pakistan from India following the partition. He shared that even when learning the trade as a child from his masters, he had often witnessed malpractice in form of mixing copper with gold to give it the full look� that a 22k gold item has.

I am ashamed to say that even my forefathers have played their game to survive in the market, but they never cheated loyal customers� he was quick to add. He explained that cheating in the value of gold jewelleries is common when customers order designs and collect it at a later date.

During the melting and remaking process that other elements are mixed in. At other times the weight of the final accessory is also often tampered with as very few customers recheck on the weight of the jewelleries during the time of collection� he expressed.

Haroon Rashid, on the other hand, explained the more technical aspects of jewellery making and how gold are mixed with other alloys which give them pure-gold look and weight.

He explained that to provide hardness and shine to gold of a dull yellow colour similar to 22k gold items, one masha (0.98g) gold is mixed with 6 rati (0.73g) copper and 2 rati (0.24g) silver. For 18k gold which is of a brighter yellow colour, one masha (0.98g) gold is mixed with 6 rati (0.73g) silver and 2 rati (0.24g) copper.

Chand informed that this was the basic fundamental calculation for mixing gold to form various forms of carats and parallel ratios were used for greater amounts of the precious metal.

He further elaborated that it was during this mixing process when higher levels of copper and lower levels of gold were substituted to form a manipulated final product. Chand articulated that nowadays with gold becoming increasingly expensive, people preferred 21k gold sets which encouraged illegal mixtures as it helped to bring the prices of the accessories further down.

The expert went on to inform that earlier customers used to buy jewelleries as heavy as 10 tolas but now following the steep hike in gold value within a year, the trend has shifted towards lighter weight jewelleries commonly ranging between 3-5 tolas only.

He said that slowly the trust that customers had in their jewellers had faded mainly due to those dealers in the industry who seek maximised profits and care little about customer-dealer relationship. The expert advised public to trust only old gold smiths who have a recognised name or ones that have been in the family for years. He said that their charges may be high but their work is authentic.

Any jeweller offering lower charges especially for you� is definitely cheating you� he continued. To matter how much he tries to convince you by saying that the lower charges are to make you a permanent customer, its manipulation as a businessman who never run into a loss himself� he added.