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African "Gold" Turns Out To Be Dust Upon Arrival In UAE; Millions In Ethiopian Central Bank Bullion Confirmed Fake
Add this one to the wtf files: a headline in Emirates 24/7 is sufficient to demonstrate what ridiculous proportions goldmania has reached in various parts of the world: "Tons of gold imports turn to dust on arrival. Gold imported into the UAE by traders and investors turned out to be fake on closer inspection." Thank god for "closer inspection." The total impact of such fake gold in the UAE alone: "over $200 million."And the scariest bit: "Recent media reports suggested that several million dollars worth of
gold with the Ethiopian Central Bank turned out to be fake. These bars
of gold turned out to be gold plated steel bars." In other news, gold everywhere else is safe until proven to be gold-plated tungsten... pending closer inspection.
More on this hilarious development from the source:
Several tons of gold imported into the UAE by traders and investors turned out to be fake on closer inspection, resulting in millions of dirhams in losses and high levels of stress to the victims.
Speaking to Emirates 24|7, Mohamad Shakarchi,, Managing Director of Emirates Gold, said: "A lot of people in the UAE who tried to import gold at lower prices or through dubious overseas companies have been cheated.
We have inspected many consignments from African countries, especially Ghana, and found that there is not an ounce of gold in them.
For importing pure dust or other metals with yellow colour, these traders have paid several million dirhams.”
Dubai Customs sources confirmed the incidence of fake gold imports, but did not reply to a questionnaire sent by Emirates 24|7 ten days ago.
“The concerned official is on leave,” said a spokesman.
Apparently it has gotten so bad, that the UAE no longer even tests for African-sourced gold:
Emirates Gold has stopped examining gold imported from Africa. "We send specialists to examine a gold consignment only if it is routed through a local company.
We don’t have time to waste because most of these so called gold imports are fake. The traders got greedy. They thought they were getting gold at a discounted rate.”
Mohammed said that at least five tonnes of fake yellow metal is lying with Dubai Customs.
A tonne of gold will cost approximately $40 million. Merchants estimated that the minimum loss of fake gold imported by local traders is nothing less than $200 million.
He said many clients and Dubai Customs have requested the use of company’s expertise to verify the purity of gold. “The fake gold issue has affected many people. Some of the traders got heart attack, after our inspectors said there is no gold in the tonnes of imports brought from Africa,” Mohammed said.
And the scariest part of the report:
Recent media reports suggested that several million dollars worth of gold with the Ethiopian Central Bank turned out to be fake. These bars of gold turned out to be gold plated steel bars.
And yes, the Nigerian scam is now flatly focusing on gold:
The seller can walk away at any point with virtually no risk of being caught as all contacts are via anonymous free webmail accounts accessed from Internet cafes and via prepaid mobile phones.
After the real estate and stock market investments became dull, many local investors have turned to commodity, especially gold investment, said the Chief Executive Officer of JRG Commodities, Sajith Kumar PK.
Hopefully the flight to fraud has not reached South Africa and its Krugerrands yet or there will be hell to pay (in the form of gold dust) soon enough.
h/t phanbury
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The non-intrinsic value of gold is inversely proportional to the value of ideas. Which is to say that goods and services cannot easily be priced in terms of an arbitrary physical asset by a society that values IP.
Gold is irrelevant, got IP ?
UAE investors evidently taking huge long positions in front-month stupid.
Not to go all engi-nerd but...what the fuck? Gold is so dense that simply weighing the damn bar (assuming it's a standardized volume of material) will immediately tell you wether or not it's legit.
Steel bars??? Jesus Christ, if someone can't tell that a steel bar (which weighs 1/3 that of gold) is different than a solid gold bar then fuck them. Tungsten...OK, it's close (for human perception) but even it couldn't pass a weight inspection.
I would *assume* that the bars are given some sort of topographical scan to determine the volume of the bar and then compared to it's weight to see if the density is correct. Surely...surely this is done in an automated way considering the money involved....right?
I mean...steel bars...unreal. Why not just use lead?
I agree it is too easy to test these bars. However, they did catch that these were fakes. WTF were the investors doing paying $200 mil in advance for African gold without first inspecting the merchandise? That was the main point of stupidity. IMO this is a non-story.
Same thing happened to one of my progressive optimist friends. Didn't think it was appropriate to check the materials because it might insult the racial sensitivities of the Ethiopian sellers.
You deserve first place for such a clean shot. Though, don't expect to get a real gold medal.
Bingo. Complete nonsense.
They have an electronic test for tungsten because the weight is close to gold.
Well, I agree also with that. The electrical conductivity could be used as well. There are MULTIPLE easy ways to determine if a gold bar is really a SOLID gold bar. I can't believe they are not used.
In theory, as its density is 19.1g/cm3, which is approximately 70% denser than lead, uranium could be used as material of making fake coin. However, it is weakly radioactive and not as dense as gold, so it does not appear to be a practical method.http://www.tungsten-alloy.com/en/alloy11.htm
Well, I agree that if you paint it gold (or plate it) and stamp "GOLD" on the top of it, I would personally have a difficult time to determine that it's tungsten cored. But, give me any one of a multitude of modern devices and I could tell you quickly if it's fake or not.
Sorry, even pawn shops have methods of determining authenticity in moments. I can't believe something of this scale is done without any modern (if not bleeding edge technologies considering the values in play) equipment being automatically used.
Yep. All the talk about fake gold is crap. As I posted above:
Tungsten is very hard and therefore very rigid. It's the OPPOSITE of gold which is very soft and very malleable. Therefore it "sounds" differently. All you have to do is clank them drop them on top of each other. My method is use one gold coin to flip another gold coin. Both will sing at the right frequency. Tungsten is so hard it will only "clank" not piiiiiiiinnnnggggg.
If you handle gold enough you're sensory system can eventually "identify" how it "feels". Close your eyes and touch your desk with your hand and feel beyond the surface to the wood beneath. That sort of thing just happens over the years of sensing materials with your nervous system. I bet you know exactly how your mouse feels and would instantly know if someone replaced it with the exact same mouse made out of a different plastic.
So true. The ring of a silver coin is unmistakable. Sad to say most Americans will never know the difference after handling all the clad coinage.
And even sadder most gold holders will stuff their gold in a vault. You can't get the expertise of knowing the material without playing with it. So everyone should play with their money.
The other night, very drunk, I crawled in bed and began feeling my wife's cock. And then realized that I live in 24B!
Same thing! Radical! Epic!
That's what happens when you buy stuff "at a discount" from shady places.
And by the way, that news over the Ethiopian fake gold bars isn't really fresh, it surfaced over two years ago.
We once again find out supply is less than earlier thought. Prices should be much, much higher to reflect the real scarcity.
"We have inspected many consignments from African countries, especially Ghana, and found that there is not an ounce of gold in them."
African gold merchants claim to be in possession of large quantities of gold dust or gold bars, which they offer to sell at below market prices.
Mohammed said that at least five tonnes of fake yellow metal is lying with Dubai Customs.
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=188282
Physical, bitches
Old news! Just wait until gold prices pass the $2000 an ounce mark, then scams will really get interesting! LOL!
Is that going to be by NEXT June?
It was supposed to be by this June, according to 30 something percent of people here.
I guess that 30 percent of the people here are terribly and horribly wrong.
Tungsten will still be very valuable in the future,
when we revert to 19th century technology, we can make our own light bulbs with mayonnaise jars!
lol
Mail order gold. Mail order bride. Is there a song in that?
Mail order gold,
Mail order bride,
I buried them both in the garden outside.
Mail order bride,
Mail order gold,
How could I know that they'd both be so cold?
Mail order gold,
Mail order bride,
The hood's on my head and my hands have been tied.
Mail order bride,
Mail order gold,
My time is now up and my story's been told.
It wasn't dust, it was gold bug guano. Things like this happen with commodities.
Penetrating power of tungsten would command a high price as a 9mm slug.
TANSTAAFL
"ATTN:
Dear Sir/M,
I am Mr. David Mark, an Auditor of the BANK OF THE NORTH INTERNATIONAL, ABUJA (FCT). I also have the courage to crave indulgence for this important business believing that you will never let me down either now or in the future. Some years ago, an American Mining consultant/ contractor with the Nigeria National Gold Corporation, made a deposit of gold bullion, valued $12M.USD (TWELVE MILLION US DOLLARS) in an account......."
Mr. David Mark, I have the courage to never let you down and feel that chose the right person to benefit from this situation. Send details.
I've recently bought fake gold bars and fake silver dollars at the local china town (not to sell, but for the decoy safe); granted they wouldn't fool experts but your average J6PK they would, and it's the J6PK's of the world we gold-bugs need to unload our stacks to at the peak - it's stories like this that are intended to scare away the investing public from bullion, I think this story is as fake as the african gold.
nice.
Holy shit, this is a great idea.
Well played.
...tongue firmly in cheek for the last 4 words.
why would anyone trust the africans? almost everything they do has corruption
'steel plated bars'?
They didnt even have the courtesy to send them tungsten??
Tungsten is much more difficult to cast into the necessary shapes to use as a gold substitute. Higher melting point, etc. Steel? Easy.
Good thing we have the pinky swear promise of Ft. Knox that their unaudited gold isnt going to turn to dust
maybe this is somewhere all those GLD investors can park their cash. dust > paper.
MISSION STATUS UPDATE 11:
"Sergeant Tyler,we have reports coming in of stockpiles of GOLD PLATED STEEL BARS being uncovered.....location identified.Sir............its the Ethiopian Bank SIR".
"WHAAAAAT"
"MORE FAKE GOLD REPORTED AGAIN SIR"
".....What the F***,Dammit Leuitenant it don't make no sense n'more,first we encountered some GOLD PLATED LEAD, then on our last important mission we managed to intercept that hoard of GOLD PLATED TUNGSTEN,and now this?"
"Shit....whats next......GOLD PLATED RUBBER BARS?"
"OKAY F*** THIS, Corporal........assemble all the men i want the location of REAL 24 KARAT.9999 FINE GOLD found men.DAMN IT SEARCH EVERYWHERE.. GO THROUGH EVERY SHIT HOUSE, WHORE HOUSE,DOG HOUSE..... I WANT SOMETHING ON MY DESK BY 11:00HRS PEOPLE".
"NOW MOVE YA ASSES"
"Hey Srg',how about we search Fort Knox, Fed Reserve Bank Of New York Bullion Depository"
"NEGATIVE......THER' CLEANED OUT.....READ MY LIPS TROOPER.....E-M-P-T-Y, GOT IT"
"Yes Sir"
"SIR....SIR.....here,maybe this is what ya look'n for Serg'....."
"Well al'be damned..........where did ya find this soldier?"
http://sfj.abstractdynamics.org/archives/gold%20tooth.jpg
"Sir,i pulled it out from the new recruits mouth,SIR"
".......Fine job trooper......ya did a damn swell job"
"Thankyou Sir"
"At least now we know where to look men"
"OH, one last request trooper, ya can pull out this sweet ladies entire jaw on your way out"
http://www.sportsrubbish.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/woman-gold-teeth...
"SHHHHIIIIIITTTTTTT........SCREW THAT SERG'"
It's not fake gold. Think of it as fiat gold. Instead of paper pretending to represent gold, you get yellow dust and steel bars.I daresay a sizeable fraction of most governments' real power derives ultimately from steel bars.
Quote of the day.
Dust, bitchez!!!!
If the african bars' ratio of the gold dust to the steel is 100:1, then shouldnt Jeff Christian or the LBMA be willing to pay spot price for them?
Note to self: Never buy bullion from someone who's first name is "PapaDoc"
Similar to someone who gets stuck with a phony $100 bill, the people who got stuck with phony gold in Dubai will be tempted to try to pass it off to some other unwitting buyer. I'd be especially careful of any gold coming out of any of the Gulf States.
The automated gold selling machines comes to mind. You are more likely to keep quiet if you were conned by a machine, never mind the 30% premium alone. Not saying the real ones are doing this but how to tell one is real?
"...March 2nd, 2010 / 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..."
http://news.coinupdate.com/largest-private-refinery-discovers-gold-plated-tungsten-bar-0171/
i dont know......
i dont know......
Wonder how much of the fakie fake Dimon has dealt across the board? Probably trillions worth. The scumbags at JP Morgan will go down in falmes just like Lehman.
Bullionvault bitches!
Ohhh boy - a new angle to the "411" . . .
Seems to me as yet another "you cannot trust physical" stories that circulate
from time to time. Just by coincidence they happen to show up around $1200
an ounce.
pods
LOL. If you think they show up alot at 1200 an ounce wait till 1360. All the gold in the world will be fake then.
Wait until 54 bajillion trillion an ounce. It shouldn't be that long. I'm guessing next week.
Started buying gold a few years ago.Was afraid to buy fake then and starting
to buy from different sources and different items(coins,bars jewellery).Also bought
silver,platinum and palladium along the way.After a while you ged used to the
feeling,yes!taste and smell,sound and crafmenship of the items.Just play with it
and learn.
hmmm you better read some of the answers that people have been giving me earlier in the thread,
they say you all know the exact dimensions of the coins, and are weighing them as well, or have bought some gear to test it.
i think if you really are buying over the net, you should be doing some better tests
LOL, they'll never let the market price of gold go that high. They they will start by setting the "true price" of gold at some ridiculously low level. Then they will seize everyone's gold in exchange for their worthless paper. Possessing gold will be criminalized. You will be subjected to all the clever ways we have punished drug possession. Unlike the 30's, we have all sorts of new inventions to make you pay for wanting to keep what is yours. They'll use the mandatory sentencing guidelines to throw you away. The three strikes and your out life sentencing will be too bad for you if you have some youthful indiscretions in your past. The IRS will destroy you for not reporting "income" in the form of capital gains you haven't even realized yet. Finally, the coup de gras, forfeiture laws will authorize the government to seize your home and possessions because they were "instrumentalities" used in the commission of a crime. Roosevelt did all he could to punish the gold owners, but the laws have changed, our society has changed, and the government can do whatever it wants to you.
Oh yes, another development of the recent past is to allow the local police to take a percentage of drug busts. With economic tough times upon them, the locals will be developing informants to find gold like they do today to find drugs. Widen the policy to include the citizenry, and just how long do you think it will take your stupid neighbor who wouldn't listen to you about gold before the crisis to justify his actions that you are doing something wrong and turn you in (for a sweet reward)?
Beware, the gold sniffing dogs are on their way
"Beware, the gold sniffing dogs are on their way"
Well as long as they train them in Fort Knox. That way they will only bark when they sniff tungsten. This scam could bite them in the ass.
You just have to watch it with these service animals. Once their shepard tramp stamps them, trains them to be violent and convinces them they are the only ones worthy of killing they become very dangerous.
With platinum being *the* densest common metal, it would be impossible to substitute with tungsten or indeed any other commonly available material. Wouldn't it make far more sense to stock up on platinum rather than gold? Verification would be really simple with a bath of liquid, a measurement jug and a scale.
FYI Metal density: tungsten 19600 gold 19320 platinum 21400
When TSHTF, what is your view on the value of platinum as a currency substitute? Would it be too rare to be trade-able? Comments/ideas?
if TSHTF i don't think you'd find many people would know what tungsten is, or why they should accept it.
gold is a far safer bet. why mess with it?
Speaking as an academic topic, because if the SHTF situation does appear, food is the only thing that is going to matter:
Any precious metal would be too valuable as a unit of trade, except perhaps for junk silver. Try stocking up on .22LR, it's cheap, it is the most common chamber, and people will desire it to put meat on the table. Large game will disappear quickly, small game is the ticket. (For that matter, mouse traps are probably going to be in demand to put food on the table).
This question comes up all the time. Don't mix the issue of what is a good investment, what is a good store of (all of your) wealth, and what is good for everyday trade. I have even heard people say that liquor is good for trade. Do you have any idea how fast people can drink up booze in a SHTF situation? I give the booze supply two weeks tops. After the party, good booze is going to be so scarce that nobody's going to be able to pay for a whole bottle of hooch. Store nip bottles. If the world doesn't end, you can still drink them. If it does, you can trade them one tiny bottle at a time.
Will it happen? We have billions of people living with no more than a few weeks of food in their homes and in the nearby stores. Family farms are gone, so any upset of the current system will result is a disruption of food production on corporate farms and the entire distribution system. Even if they get it running again, what happens when hungry masses find out Walmart has food again? Hell, they trample each other for sale items now. It doesn't take a great imagination to figure that one out. It's a vastly complex system with no margin for error.
Could it happen? Naw! What's on American Idol tonight?
yeah I've seen a lot of folks recommending cigarettes & liquor as barter items and I'm thinking: if things get that shitty, people are going to be more concerned about food. So stocking up on storable food bars, and ammo to protect same.
Buy gold AFTER you buy stuff necessary to live.
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