aku beli gold maple leaf n australian nugget kat UOB KL.
ada option utk jual balik pd uob... ...
pengecatbintang Post at 30-11-2010 19:10
goldbar dr UOB bleh pajak kt ar rahnu ker? awk beli silver tue kt kedai mana ek? bleh tunjuk atau gi sama2 ker kbtlan sy ada g kl nnti igt nk try beli silver plak...
pesal haa.. banyak jalan kat bahagian pulau ni kurang atau takde signboard.. ...
pengecatbintang Post at 1-12-2010 23:16
btl tue sy pn mula2 keliru jgk, tp la nie dh ok skit kot...tau la jgk kt mana PISA, PESTA, bayan baru... terlanjur awk ckp HQ PG br terigt nk tgk opis die...tp kt belah mana ek?
mmg pon....simpang empat kat roundabout besar tu ek? tu r/about kristal point....kuar dari EQ hotel tu u iku left or right dua2 jalan leh tembus ke bukit jambul....masa mula2 duk penag hb sy tnjuk 1 jalan je bertau2n sy dok ikut jalan yg sama x berani try jalan lain takut sesat....smpi la hb ajar jalan lain.....but now dh 6thn kat penang teror le sikit jalan2 kat penang ni.....
HK gold market hit by sophisticated scam
By Robert Cookson in Hong Kong
Published: December 2 2010 03:59 | Last updated: December 2 2010 03:59
Hong Kong goldsmiths have been sold hundreds of ounces of fake gold this year in one of the most sophisticated scams to hit the Chinese territory’s gold market in decades. Industry executives say the scam – while not massive and hitting only the retail sector – uncloaks the increasingly elaborate gold swindles perpetrated by criminals in Asia as bullion prices soar to record highs of $1,400 a troy ounce.
The counterfeits have shocked Hong Kong’s gold community not because of the amount involved, but because of their sophistication.“It’s a very good fake,” said Haywood Cheung, president of the Chinese Gold & Silver Exchange Society, Hong Kong’s century-old gold exchange, highlighting how criminals are developing new techniques to commit an age-old fraud.
Mr Cheung said he was aware of at least 200 ounces – worth $280,000 – of the fake gold that had been discovered by jewellers and pawn shops. But he estimated that ten times that amount might have infiltrated the retail market. In comparison, the large gold bars held by central banks weigh 400 ounces and are worth nearly $560,000 each.
In one case, executives discovered a pure gold coating that masked a complex alloy with similar properties to gold. The fake gold included a significant amount of bullion – about 51 per cent of the total – alloyed with seven other metals: osmium, iridium, ruthenium, copper, nickel, iron, and rhodium.
The complex nature of the fakes suggest they were produced by a metalsmith with sophisticated equipment and extensive knowledge of metallurgical engineering. Even Luk Fook Group, one of Hong Kong’s biggest jewellers, was tricked into buying $11,500 worth of fake gold this summer before putting its stores on alert. “This was the biggest hit ever,” said Paul Law, executive director of the firm.
In the past, counterfeit gold in Hong Kong and the rest of Asia was either rough and easy to detect, even to the naked eye, or involved gold-plated tungsten, a metal with a similar density to gold, but which traders and jewellers can easily identify. The complexity of the latest batch of fake gold would have reduced the profitability of the scam, since it used a significant amount of bullion, and because iridium and osmium are expensive.
The fakes are extremely hard to detect by sight and touch alone. In most cases, they passed basic scrutiny, only to be revealed later by more sophisticated tests involving high temperatures and chemicals.
Industry executives stressed that the scam targeted the street-level sale of scrap gold to jewellers. Mr Cheung said none of the fake gold had infiltrated the much more bigger market for gold bars, which as is protected by more rigorous controls.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
tu lah sebabnya aku beli gold syiling dr Bank... n bran ...
pengecatbintang Post at 2-12-2010 22:21
moral of the story untuk beli gold sahaja (tak termasuk silver) ... bagi aku ler... tak terpakai utk orang lain...
1. aku tak beli gold bar... aku beli syiling... mgkn sukar utk fake syiling
2. aku beli emas yang setiap unit tak melebihi 1 Ounce (31.1 gram)
3. aku beli emas jenama terkenal dan diedar dengan banyak di seluruh dunia dan telah jual sejak sekian lama
(bukan dari company yang macam cendawan tumbuh bila rege emas naik sejak tahun 2001)
teori no. 3 ni tak terpakai utk Kijang Emas... he he
terkenal n diedar keseluruh dunia bermaksud... ada check n balance dr pembeli... dr berjuta pembeli...
mungkin ada pembuat barang kemas yg beli utk dilebur wat emas... atau ada yg check ketulinan...
Recently, the German television station ProSieben ran a news story covering W. C. Heraeus in Hanau, Germany, the world’s largest privately owned refinery. In the story, Wilfried Hörner, the head of the gold foundry, shows a 500 gram bar (16.0755 troy ounces) received from an unidentified bank. The bar had the right physical dimensions to be an authentic gold bar, but one of the Heraeus employees suspected something funny. After the bar was cut in half, you can see that the inside is tungsten, with only a coating of gold on the outside.
Last fall, Rob Kirby of Kirby Analytics in Toronto reported that China’s central bank had discovered some 400-ounce gold-plated tungsten bars among those it had recently received from bonded warehouses. It was later learned that at least four counterfeit bars were found and that all had come from sources in the United States. As suspicions grow about counterfeit bars among those held in bonded warehouses for delivery against either COMEX or London Bullion Market Association contracts or shares of exchange traded funds, investors could panic. So, you can understand that there has been almost a total blackout on news coverage on this story.
Tungsten is the only lower value metal that has a specific density close enough to gold to fabricate passable counterfeit pieces of the same size and weight as genuine coins and ingots. Over the years, there have been a few isolated reports of smaller coins and bars found to have been drilled to remove some of the gold which was replaced with tungsten. However, it is far more profitable to fabricate larger original bars of tungsten that are then gold-plated.
Thus far, the commodity exchanges have disclaimed of any responsibility for the purity of the gold bars they are delivering against contracts. As stories of gold-plated tungsten bars in bonded warehouses continue to appear, I expect the commodity exchanges are going to be forced to modify their business practices to provide a guaranty of purity for any bars they deliver.
The process of non-destructive testing of bars to check for counterfeits involves very expensive equipment and is time consuming. It is beyond the means of almost all investors and coin dealers. For maximize safety, I recommend purchasing only smaller size coins and ingots, say two ounces of gold content or less, and only deal with a company that has a lengthy track record and in-house staff expertise (unlike the bank that took in this counterfeit 500 gram bar). If you have purchased coins and ingots from unknown sources, you may want have them checked out by an experienced independent third party.
In contrast, the last things I would want to invest in are large gold bars stored in bonded warehouses in unallocated storage. If it turns out that the warehouse holding your bars has too many counterfeit bars in their inventory, it could go bankrupt. That would leave holders of unallocated inventory as unsecured creditors of the bankrupt company, and not as owners of gold.
Because the existence of counterfeit gold-plated tungsten bars could have such a huge impact on the financial markets, there is a huge potential for deception and misinformation to be passed around. Be very careful about automatically believing any story you may hear. For your own protection, it would be better to take physical possession of the smaller sizes of gold coins and bars now, and know that what you own genuine solid gold.
Post time 1-12-2010 11:09 PM
