JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – There is a new scam going around. Police say scammers are trying to sell fake gold for a lot of money.
The problem with this scam is it seems like a great deal, especially right now because gold is so expensive.
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A local woman, who was nearly taken for thousands of dollars, spoke with Channel 4's Emily Turner about this and doesn't want it to happen to anyone else.
Gail Lee sells jewelry for a living. She doesn't buy it though. So when a customer came into her store offering to sell her $20,000 worth of gold for half that price, she figured the deal was too good to be true.
"I have never held so much gold. I thought something was wrong. But then when I saw all of his gold teeth, I thought, well, maybe he really has real gold," Gail told Channel 4.
Gail called her husband to stall the man, while a friend called police.
Gail said, "I called him and said 'honey, there's a man here selling gold and I'd like to buy it. It's a good investment. Would you go to the bank and get $10,000?' Well My husband flipped. He said 'what are you doing?'"
What Gail did was the right thing.
According to the police report, "the man said he was doing business as a private citizen, similar to a pawn transaction, then advised that he had a 'peddler's license.'
Police took pictures of the jewelry, which looked like gold, but in the report, the officer said, "I did not believe the jewelry had the weight and appearance of 14K gold."
Atlantic Beach Police say they haven't seen this type of scam before.
They say the man had one bag of gold that was real, another that was fake. They believe that he would have switched the bags after the sale.
Lt. Tiffany Layson with the Atlantic Beach Police Department said, "With gold prices going so high we have a lot of the cash for gold places popping up around the county, and I'm sure throughout the state. I think it's an opportunity for people with ill intent to take advantage of small business owners."
Gail wants other people to be cautious. "People out there please beware. Especially small businesses, because it's bad. We're trying to make a living. We're small people and they want to take from us. It's really sad and I just don't want him to hit anybody else."