MT. CARMEL, Ill. (WEVV) 鈥� A local jeweler noticed a startling trend among his customers and to warn the public about a fake jewelry scam he鈥檚 been seeing more and more of. That post went on to be shared by local authorities and hundreds of others.
Darrin Gottman, owner of Gottman鈥檚 Custom Jewelry in Mt. Carmel, told 44News 鈥漣n the last two weeks, [the scam] has become almost a little bit of an epidemic.鈥�
Gottman says he鈥檚 seen a flood of fake gold jewelry coming through his doors. His customers report being approached while pumping gas and asked to buy gold jewelry from the scammer at an extremely low price, so the scammer can afford to put gas in their car.
If the victim takes the scammer up on the offer and brings the jewelry in for evaluation, it's up to Gottman to deliver the bad news. 鈥漇ome of those [fake rings] end up here. The customer will walk in and ask me if this is worth $100, and I said 鈥榳ell, no.鈥� The jewelry itself is worthless鈥搕ypically just brass.鈥�
Without professional experience and equipment, telling real from fake is nearly impossible. Gottman uses a special acid to test the authenticity of the metal he receives.
Having witnessed similar scams throughout his career as a jeweler, Gottman says not to bother trying to authenticate any jewelry offered to you under unusual circumstances and decline the offer if safe to do so.
鈥漌hen someone is offering you jewelry and they鈥檙e telling you that it鈥檚 worth a lot of money," he said, "but you can have it for just a few hundred dollars, that鈥檚 a huge red flag.鈥�
If you find yourself in a situation where you feel someone is trying to scam you, then police urge you to contact them so they can start their own investigation.
