Some citizens like to research and collect antiques in their spare time. However, the antique industry is as deep as the sea, and there are not a few who are tricked. Recently, Mr. Ran in the area under the jurisdiction of the Weiting Police Station in the park called the police for help, saying that he may have been deceived.
“Comrade police, I was deceived by entrusting Yamou Company to auction collections!” It turned out that Mr. Ran had a copper coin of Shunzhi Tongbao in his home, and he planned to auction it on a whim, so he searched the Internet for the auction of this ancient coin. In June this year, Mr. Ran received a phone call from a person claiming to be an auction company asking if he needed to entrust him with the auction.
Mr. Ran agreed, and after visiting Kunshan the next day, he felt that the company was still trustworthy, so he agreed to hang his copper coins in Yamou’s company for auction. After seeing the ancient coin, the business manager Tian said that according to the previous transaction records, it could be sold for about 1.6 million yuan, and showed Mr. Ran the previous transaction records.
Mr. Ran was pleasantly surprised, and then Manager Tian said that he also needed to ask a professional appraiser to distinguish the authenticity, and after testing and confirming that Mr. Ran’s ancient coin was genuine, the two sides signed a commission contract, the contract stated that the exhibition price of the ancient coin was 1.2 million, and the company promised to be able to successfully trade, and then Mr. Ran paid a service fee of 5,000 yuan.
Who knows that almost half a year has passed, during which Mr. Ran repeatedly asked whether the other party had been sold, Manager Tian just pushed back that the customer was paying attention, but there was no deal, the more Mr. Ran thought about it, the more wrong it was, and finally chose to call the police for help. At present, the police are investigating the situation.
So, how can collectors enthusiasts tell the difference between such scams? The police introduced some points of attention for your reference:
As a first step, the scammers set up a “tall” looking collectible auction company and package it. For example, renting high-end office space in a busy area and packaging fakes in luxury glass cases. Some companies also set up a “official website” that looks decent to increase credibility.
In the second step, once the company is in place, the scammer will mobilize the salesman to find people who are eager to identify or auction. They often post auction information on forums and QQ groups of major antique lovers, or advertise in the name of “expert free appraisal”, looking for those who are eager to identify antiques or are eager to auction collectibles.
In the third step, once someone contacts you, the scammer will warmly invite the collector to the company for an interview, on the one hand, to show the company’s “strength”, on the other hand, to ask the collector to sign a “contract” in person, the ultimate goal is to defraud the collector of the money in his pocket.